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THE 

LIGHT OF TRUTH, 

AND 

PLEASURE OF LIGHT. 

IK ¥0\3H BOOKS. 

CHRBAT IS TRUTH, AND IT SHALL PREVAIL, 



— — —■■■ ■». 



aWfiletraetfUe: 

PUBLISHED BY M. SMITH. 

PANTED BY RUSSEL CANFIELD, HARTFORD, CT. 
1827. 



DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, ss. 

■j BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty 
second day of May, in the fifty-first year of the 
Independence of the United States of America, 
Russel Canfield, of the said District, hath de- 
posited in this office the title of a Book, the 

right wliereof he claims as Proprietor, in the words following, to 

wit : 



L.S. 






« The Light of Truth, and Pleasure of Light, in four Books, 
Great is Truth, and it shall prevail." 

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, enti- 
tled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the 
copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors 
of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,"-- -And also to 
the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled 'An 
act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of 
maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such 
copies during the times .therein mentioned," and extending the ben- 
efits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching histori- 
cal and other prints." 

F CHAS. A. INGERSOLL, 

Clerk of the District of Connecticut. 
A true copy of Record, examined and sealed by me, 
V F/ CHAS. A. INGERSOLL, 

Clerk of the District of Connecticut 



CONTENTS. 



b@@k: feest. 

Sect. 1. — Of the Magi notion of evil— who created it — The 
term Devil, not found in the Old Testament — 
Of the term Satan-Of the Greek term diabolos, 
translated Devil, in the New Testament — Of 
the origin, or parentage of the Devil. 13 

Sect. II. — Of the Greek terms Daimonion, or Daimoniou 
and Daimon, translated Devil, or Devils — Tes- 
timony of Scripture to prove the Non-personali- 
ty of a Devil — Of the destruction of the Devil. 21 

Sect. III. — The opinion of Plato, Heisod, and others, respec- 
ting Demons How the English translators 

rendered the same Greek term differently — 
Opinion of Homer and Josephus — Of the Jew- 
ish Angelology-Hippocrates 1 opinion of Demo- 25 
niacs. 

Sect. IV.— Definition of the Greek term, — Diabolos — Re- 
marks of Dr. S. Clark on personification, — of 
the number of Angels and Devils — A Devil the 
popular god of Superstition. 31 

Sect. V. — Observations relative to the Hebrew word Shai- 
tan, called Satan, in our common version. — An 
extract from Prideaux, on the Maan j.nloso- 
phy, as revived by Zoroaster 42 

Sect. VI. — Of witches and witchcraft. — T he Magian religion, 
as revived and reformed by Zoroaster, a suppo- 
sed Jew. — Zoroaster's day of judgment. —Con- 
cluding remarks. 59 

BOOK SECOND. 

Sect. I. — Examination of the Hebrew words Sheol and Ge- 
henna ; and of the Greek word Hades, and the 
pagan Tartarus. 75 

Sect. II. — Hell Destroyed. — Lecture on 1 Cor. 15: 55. 
O Hell, where is thy Victory. By Rev. J S. 
Thompson. 300 

Sect. III. — Further remarks on the words Sheol and Hades. 
Reasons for disbelieving in the modern use of 
these terms, urged, from scripture usage. 117 

Sect. IV. — Further examination of the subject. Appeal to 

the Scriptures relative to the first transgression. 149 

t 



CONTENTS. 

Sect. V. — Quotations from Dr. Campbell relative to Slieol 
and Hades, and Mr. Balfour's deductions from 
them. Further remarks by the Editor. 153 

Sect. VI. — An examination of the only passage in the New 
Testament, where our Lord threatens the J-ews 
with Gehenna punishment. 175 

Sect. VII. — The remaining places where Gehenna occurs in 

the New Testament fairly examined. 189 

BOOK THIRD. 

Sect. I. — Statement of the argument — Home-made Scripture 
No soul fit for heaven while in the body — The 
Almighty knew, of course decreed the destiny of 
all souls before he created them. 223 

Sect. II. — Reasonable arguments — The carnal mind is the 
cause of sin — The facilities of the disimbodied 
soul to attain holiness — No authority to believe 
God is limited in his designs with the soul to the 
time of this life — All believe the soul can exist 
after death with all its faculties,— why not then 
be improved by means. €30 

Sect. III.— The good and wise believe that God has not left 
the final destiny of man to his own actions and 
opinions — Remarks of Addison — Query relative 
to the situation of the soul alter death — How 
God will sanctify the soul after it leaves the 
body. 23$ 

Sect. IV. — If souls cannot be altered for the better beyond 
the grave, Infants cannot be saved — What it is 
to be bom of God — Idiots not fit for heaven — 
Those who never heard of Christ and God, not 
fit for heaven. 245 

Sect. V. — Statement of another opinion relative to the origin 
of the soul — God could have prevented moral 
evil and human misery — The necessity and 
benefit of evil and misery. 254 

BOOK FOURTH. 

Sect. I. — Of the origin of sin — Fabulous account — True ac- 
count-Sin not infinite, but finite. — Atonement. 26T 

Sect. II — Second plan of Atonement, examined and refuted* 

Remarks on its injurious effects. 280 

Sect. III. — Third plan of atonement examined, and found 
wanting. Dishonourable to God, and injurious 
to man. 283 

Sect. IV. — The personage of the Mediator who makes the 
Atonement, and his ability for performing the 
work. - 9t£ 



EDITORIAL ADDRESS. 

When the subscriber undertook the printing of this 
volume for the publisher, he contemplated no higher 
duty, and no greater responsibility, than that attached 
to the labours of an editor. Circumstances, however, 
not within his control, brought into requisition his 
powers as an author, and that under very unfavoura- 
ble auspices. For error in principle, he asks no quar- 
ter ; but he is confident in the belief, that the mantle 
of charity will be spread over those defects of ar- 
rangement and style which are almost inseparable 
from a hasty production. Had time and health per- 
mitted, the arrangement and classification of facts and 
arguments might have been more judiciously made, 
but he is thankful that no material error in the detail 
of facts, and no important defect in the deductions 
from those facts, has yet been discovered. 

The extent of authorship for which the editor is 
specially responsible, is principally designated in the 
captions to the various sections. As different authors 
have furnished the principal portion of the several 
books, original matter was sometimes required to form 
the connecting links in the chain of facts and conse- 
quences. To designate this matter, is deemed super- 
Jluous. 

Whatever may be the impression of those who are 
utterly unable to judge correctly, for want of data ; 
certain it is, that few could be induced to come out 
with arguments against a popular doctrine, unless sup^ 
ported by good testimony. That the evidence on 
which we oppose the common doctrines is valid, is 
shown by the fears and tergiversations of our ©ppo- 



EDITORIAL ADDRESS. 

nents, gendered by their fears. They feel the weight 
of our obvious conclusions, and dread the power 
which will finally crush their idols into the dust. 

While many hope their own belief is founded in a 
lie, the shackles of superstition hang over them like 
an incubus, portending death. Their ghostly advisers 
admonish them to doubt the certainty of their reason, 
and the testimony of their senses, and they often give 
themselves up to the guidance of self-commissioned 
soul savers, for want of moral courage to resist. 

The editor takes this opportunity of commending 
his labours, such as they are, t6 the kind providence 
of God, and the attention of his fellow men, in the 
full belief, that whoever reads with a desire to know 
the truth, will reap a due reward for his labours. 

RUSSEL CANFIELD. 

Hartford, May, 1827. 



\ 



IXTHODUCTIOK. 

That the publication of this volume should not be any longer 
delayed, the editor takes license to introduce a few observations 
relative to the subject matter. 

Every person who believes that the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testament contain a revelation of, the will of God, and a 
knowledge of the ultimate destiny of the human race, must per- 
ceive the importance of knowledge in relation to these subjects, or 
be the victim of an astonishing infatuation. If a person implicitly 
believes what may be asserted relative to these subjects, without 
an attempt to inquire into the truth or consistency of the tenets 
with which he is presented, he acts less judiciously than most men 
do in affairs of minor consequence. If he considers himself in duty 
bound to search the scriptures for light on these subjects, he will 
not rashly disapprove this attempt to bring long established tenets 
to the test of the written word. Truth will lose none of its bril- 
liancy, and none of its value, by investigation. If the prevailing 
belief relative to the origin, personality, office, and endless existence 
of the devil be correct, it is worthy a careful reconsideration, and a 
discovery of the fallacy of another faith, will render the truth nearer 
and dearer, and its effects will be proportionably more valuable. 
But if, on the contrary, a careful examination of the scriptures, 
and a knowledge of the ancient use of language, supposed to con- 
vey the common ideas, exhibit the orthodox doctrine on this subject, 
as entirely groundless, will a single created being regret, that his 
mind is illuminated by the light of truth ? Can a creature be found 
in the wide creation of God, who would not rejoice in the destruc- 
tion of evil, and the non-entity of a being clothed with immense 
power, immortal existence, and unmixed malice ? If such a one 
there be, he owns not the plastic hand of the All-Creating power 
of God. Let such a being be proved to exist, and he is a complete 
diabolos. 

The same remarks are pertinent relative to the existence of a 
place of punishment called hell, in another state of being. If it be 
-a truth, that any one of the human family is in any way made Jiable 
to intolerable and unending pain, the knowledge of the fact, with 
the means of escape, if means can effect any thing, ought to be 
widely diffused. But if the tenet is not justified by the words of 
revelation, let a knowledge of the contrary fact prevail, and let our 
fellow sojourners understand it. To search the scriptures on this, 
and every other topic, is our bounden duty, and ought to be our 
ruling desire. Can an individual hope for the truth of future, 
interminable misery ? Can one pray for it, or rejoice in it ? No, 
certainly. Then let not our indolence prevail over our duty. 

Look at the sects which compose the christian church ? See how 
widely they differ ! They agree not yet even on the rite of initia- 



INTRODUCTION. 

tion into the church of which they profess to be members ! They 
anathematize and persecute to death each the other, even while they 
fellowship in essentials ! Some must be wrong — all may be wrong : 
and where is their certificate of infallibility ? Let us then refer to 
the law and the testimony, and prove ourselves lovers of the scrip- 
tures, by attending to its injunctions, and searching out its hidden 
treasures. 

Before commencing the examination of this work, one fact should 
be known and well remembered. The facts which serve as the 
foundation of the arguments, are Scripture, and the concessions of 
the orthodox. The language and the connexion of the Scriptures, 
need no comment — the concessions were wrung from honest hearts, 
by the unyielding stubbornness of the most obvious facts. But 
whatever may be the impressions of the reader, let him not fear to 
read it. No belief can render more unhappy, than that of endless 
misery : nothing can therefore be lost — much may be gained. The 
editor of this knows the horror of that belief ; he now enjoys the 
soul rejoicing confidence of universal holiness and happiness. 

The two last books are brief; they are merely intended as cor- 
relatives. If the two first are conclsuive, the succeeding ones may 
throw light on particular subjects, and assist in giving that light 
whose brillancy shall increase to the perfect day. 

r. a 



SLBfflSIE ®2F fflffiTUffilE 



Scripture proof of the Non-personality of the Devil, 
SECTION I. 

Of the Magi notion of evil — who created it — The term Devil, not 
found in the Old Testament— Of the term Satan — Of the Greek 
term AtzGoxos, translated Devil, in the New Testament — Of the 
origin, or parentage of the Devil. 

A position is advanced by schoolmen, which merits 
our candid attention ; it is as follows : That which ex- 
isted a parte ante, must exist a parte post. In other 
words — That which has existed from eternity, must 
exist to eternity. The doctrines taught by the Ma- 
gians of Babylon, the Doctors of Divinity of that day, 
supposed two eternal principles to exist, which were 
personified, and named, the one which presided over 
light, or heaven, Orasmasdes ; the other, which ruled in 
darkness, or hell, Ahrimanius. These two principles, 
thus personified, were supposed to exercise an uncon- 
trolable influence over the destinies, and to conduct 
at pleasure, the affairs of men. To correct this ab- 
surd theology, appears to have been the design of the 
Deity, in his message to Cyrus, by his prophet ; who 
declared, " I am the Lord, and there is none else, there 
is no God beside me : I girded thee, though thou hast 
not known me : that they may know from the rising 
of the sun, and from the west, that there is none be- 
side me : I am the Lord, and there is none else : I 

2 



14 DEMONOLOGY. 

form the light, and create darkness : I make peace, 
and create evil : I the Lord do all these things."* 

What is evil ? whence its origin ? has been the 
fruitless inquiry of the learned and curious for ages. 
The consequences resulting from the existence of any 
thing or principle, must define its quality, and decide 
its merits. And it is necessary to observe the distinc- 
tion between the operation of a principle, and its final 
result. The man who wantonly severs a member from 
the body of his fellow, cannot compensate him for the 
loss, the act is evil in its operation, and an injury in 
its result. While the skilful amputator, who separates 
the gangrenous from the healthy part, and restores the 
sufferer, is entitled to the gratitude and veneration of 
the recipient. Thus are we taught to view the Great 
Physician, who heals the moral maladies of men, and 
advances them progressively toholinessand happiness. 
The question of origin is answered. " I the Lord 
create evil !" The time is ascertained by a reference 
to the beginning of the chastisements of man. The 
end is seen in the purpose of God, who " will finish 
the transgression, and make an end of sins." 

The second person in the duality of the Persian doc- 
tors, has, by an easy metamorphosis, become the devil 
of the moderns. And it is a fair presumption, that 
the Jews, during their captivity, imbibed the popular 
errors of the Magi of Babylon ; for they were notori- 
ous for going " a whoring after other gods." Neither 
has it been uncommon for untutored nations to ima- 
gine an evil principle or being, whom they have at- 

* It appears that the above declaration of Isaiah from the Al- 
mighty, was made 712 years before Christ, 112 before Cyrus was 
born — 176 before the events noted in the verses were fulfilled. 

This prophecy respecting Cyrus, made so long before he was horn, 
was shown to him by Daniel, at Babylon, in the time of Nebuchad- 
nezzar's insanity, while he visited the place, when he was 37 years 
of age, and in 27 years afterwards he fulfilled the prediction. 

See the History of Daniel, byM. Smith, pages 218 and 291 — see 
Isaiah 44 : 28, and 45 : 1 to 7. 



DEMONOLOGY. 15 

tempted to propitiate by prayers and offerings ; while 
they have assigned to the good spirit, a complacency 
independent of their agency or actions. 

It is worthy of remark, that the term devil, occurs 
nowhere in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The 
term Satan, however, a convertible mode of expres- 
sion, is found ; and it is recorded, that " when the sons 
of God came to present themselves before the Lord, 
Satan came also among them." But this should not 
excite surprise, since we are assured by the twelve 
disciples of Christ, that there was not only a Satan 
among them, but a devil also. 

The term devils occurs four times in the Old Tes- 
tament, as follows : " And they shall no more offer 
their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone 
a whoring." " They sacrificed unto devils, not to 
God ; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that 
came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. And 
he [Jeroboam] ordained him priests for the high pla- 
ces, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had 
made." " Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their 
daughters unto devils." This testimony proves, be- 
yond the possibility of confutation, that at a period 
posterior to the creation of man upon the earth, devils 
were something new. Also, that Jeroboam manufac- 
tured devils, as deliberately as the mechanic does his 
wares, and probably of similar materials ! 

We will now extend our inquiry into the New Tes- 
tament, relative to the devil who tempts the human 
family, for it is evident the devils of the Old Testa- 
ment, have no concern in this business. As the term 
devil frequently occurs in the translation of the New 
Testament, it would be superfluous to refer you to ev- 
ery passage. It is sufficient to examine the most prom- 
inent, where the original contains the appropriate and 
legitimate term. 

It is proper to state, that the word A<a§oXos, rendered 



16 DEMONOLOGY. 

devil, is from a word compounded as follows ; 6<«, 
through, and €ctXXw, to cast — To dart or strike through 
— to stab with an accusation, <^c. Therefore, the term 
Diabolos, rendered devil, signifies an accuser, a slaw 
derer, an impostor. 

Christ, addressing his disciples, says, " Have not I 
chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil, 11 Here 
is no less than Christ's unequivocal declaration, that 
one of his disciples (Judas) is a devil. But a devil is 
not the devil, some will say, but is not the devil a dev- 
il ? We acknowledge, that we have no better evidence 
to prove Judas to be a real devil, in propria persona, 
than the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

Again — We read "Even so must their wives be 
grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. In 
the original Greek, the word rendered slanderers, is 
diabolous, the legitimate word for devils ! The very 
devil that tempted Christ. Now we believe all God's 
threatenings will be executed — all the promises will 
be performed. But why exhort the deacons' wives to 
sobriety, #-c. and not to become devils, unless it is not 
only possible, but certain, too, that a contrary course 
would make them devils ? 

We read, " Forasmuch then as the children are par- 
takers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
part of the same ; that through death he might destroy 
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; 
diabolos [that tempted Christ,] and deliver them who 
through fear of death, were all their life time subject 
to bondage." Has the devil the power of death ? 
Yes. In other words : The devil causes death. What 
is death ? " To be carnally minded is death. 11 Paul 
also says, " the wages of sin is death."- Thus we see, 
that the devil and death are companions ; they walk 
hand in hand. Wherever you find the devil, there you 
find death — that is, the carnal mind— and we never 
find death without finding the devil in company. 



DEMONOLOGY. 17 

Now, we have a trace of him, we will inquire how 
came this death into our world ? This Diabolos, this 
devil, has the power of death, caused its existence, and 
brought it in his train. But how did it come ? Ans. 
" By man came death." The man existed before 
death, of coarse before the devil ; and this fact proves 
that the devil did not produce sin, nor cause man to 
sin, but the sin of man brought the devil into existence. 

How came sin into the world ? The Scriptures say 
" By one man sin entered into the world, and death by 
sin''' — If death came, or was caused by sin, what has 
the devil to do with the matter ? Ans. If the devil 
has the power of death, what concern has sin in the 
business ? Here are sin and the devil claiming the hon- 
our of being the cause of the mischief, and each of 
them have the inspired writers for historians ! Now 
we believe both of them are guilty ; and as we never 
find death, but in company with the devil, and never 
find sin, except in company with death, we therefore, 
believe they are related, and belong to one family : 
and perhaps are one and the same, and merely called 
by different names, to suit the occasion — In proof of 
this we read as follows in the Scripture : 

" And the great dragon was cast out, that old ser- 
pent, called the devil and satan, which deceiveththe 
whole world." What a deceiver, to deceive the 
whole world ! by how many names he is called ! He 
must have deceived Paul. Let us inquire of Paul, 
and learn by what name he calls him. " Sin, taking 
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by 
it slew me." Surely this is that old serpent, with an- 
other name, or something as mischeivous ; for this 
sin first deceived Paul, and then, not contented with 
having done that mischief, slew, or killed him ! This 
sin, of which Paul speaks, is most certainly, the very 
devil himself, or some one quite as bad, who, unsoli- 
cited, is performing his business for him ! 

2* 



■■ 



l8 DEMONOLOGY. 

Let us inquire farther, how this sin, or this old ser- 
pent, called the devil and satan, deceives pepole. It 
appears he deceived the whole world, Christ only ex- 
cepted. . . . 

We read that " Every man [Paul and Christ inclu- 
ded] is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own 
lust, [desire,] and enticed : then when lust hath con- 
ceived, it bringeth forth sin ; and sin, when it is finish- 
ed, bringeth forth death." 

James calls the devil by the same name as 1 aul. 
He also makes man the progenitor of the devil— b irst, 
the man's desire— Second, the man's desire conceives 
— Third y after the conception, in proper time, the 
birth takes place, and the devil appears, and death in 
his company. How stubborn is truth ? But is this 
really that old serpent, of whom so much has been 
said? The very same. Look at him— view him well, 
so you can recollect his countenance, and beware ot 
his seductions. Remember the caution to the dea- 
cons' wives, and profit by the warning. 

We are aware that the devil's portrait is not sutti- 
ciently coloured, and shaded, yet, to be seen to ad- 
vantage by all, and will proceed in the delineation ot 
his features. In attending to this, it is necessary to 
notice a prominent error in the religious world, which 
has a tendency to lead the mind astray, and to produce 
absurdity. We mean the popular doctrine of the fall 
of man. It has been taught, that man was created 
immortal, and by sinning became mortal, or liable to 
disease and death. The Scriptures teach no such 
doctrine. The constitution of man, as ordained by 
his Maker, has remained the same, so far as relates to 
his mortality. The declaration which is mistaken for 
a denunciation of vengeance. " Dust thou art, and 
unto dust shalt thou return," is only a confirmation ot 
the truth, and its consequences as stated, of man s ori- 
gin that he was" formed of the dust of the ground." 






DEMONOLOGY. Id 

Man, therefore, was as much dust before he sinned, 
as afterwards. Sin did not affect the constitution of 
his moral, or rather spiritual condition. What could, 
or what did the Maker expect to result from the work 
of his hands, different from that which experience 
has produced ? Common sense must answer — Noth- 
ing. The declaration of Christ is true now, was al- 
ways truth, and will remain so throughout the waste- 
less ages of eternity. " That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh." Now for the devil. Of what is he 
born*? Ask James. He has told you of his origin, 
conception, birth, c£-c. Can the flesh produce a spirit ? 
If it Can, you may call that spirit devil, and give him 
all the rights of primogeniture which Milton conferred 
upon him. But, still the devil which is born of the 
flesh, cannot be older than the flesh. We are farther 
instructed, that the i; flesh lusteth against the spirit, 
and the spirit against the flesh." In other words, the 
desires born of, or produced by the flesh, are opposed 
to the spirit [or nature] of God in man. 

We have seen that these opposing desires produce, 
when they conceive and bring forth, sin, or devil, 
which, when finished, produces death. 

We will direct the reader's attention to a prominent 
passage, for the further elucidation of the subject. 
We read of man, after he had sinned, or produced 
death, that he was denied access to the tree of life ; 
evidently that he should remain dead for a season, un- 
til God's purpose shall be accomplished in man's re- 
demption through Jesus Christ, who will destroy 
death, and sin, or devil, the cause of it, in such an ef- 
fectual manner, that man shall be incorruptible and 
immortal. We take the liberty to read the passage 
corectly, and not to be fettered by an erroneous trans- 
lation, " And the Lord God said, Behold the man is 
to become as one of us' 1 in the future tense ; " to 
know good and evil" and the connexion amounts to 



30 DEMONOLOGY. 

this, because he is not, in the present tense, like God, 
and is so ignorant as to know only evil, the Lord turns 
him out of the garden. 

We have now seen that man's constitution is such 
as to make his subjection to vanity, or sin, not only 
a probable, but a certain event. " That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh." The Apostle declares. 
" 1 know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no 
good thing. 5 ' In the name of reason, how can that 
come out of man, which is not in him? Paul add s, 
" JNow if 1 do that I would not, it is not I that do it, 
but sin that dwelelth in me." The Devil was in 
Paul, on his own confession. Do we not read of 
Christ, that " he was tempted in all points like as we 
are yet without sin ?" Again. " For in that he him- 
self hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to suc- 
cour them that are tempted." How was Christ 
tempted '? Let James and Paul answer. The man 
Christ Jesus was tempted as we are. How are we 
tempted ? " Every man is tempted when he is 
drawn away of his own lust and enticed." Christ, 
then, was drawn away of the lust of the body he 
bore, which was the same flesh and blood of which 
the children were partakers. How far was he 
drawn 1 Ans. He was drawn not so far as to 
have the lust conceive, nor bring forth, consequently, 
he did not sin, nor die ; that is, become carnally 
minded, as a consequence. Paul declares of him- 
self, " 1 see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
captivity." The law in Christ's members, did not 
bring him into captivity. If it is objected that Christ 
had not in his flesh the evil propensities to combat, 
common to all mankind : We answer — Then he 
was not tempted as we are, and the account of his 
being tempted of the devil that tempts mankind, is 
incorrect. 



DEMONOLOGY. 21 

SECTION II. 

Of the Greek terms Daimonion, or Daimoniou and Daimon, trans- 
lated Devil, or Devils — Testimony of Scripture to prove the 
Non-personality of a Devil — Of the destruction of the Devil. 

The more effectually to remove the stumbling blocks 
from the inquirer after truth, it is necessary to notice 
the varied translation of the same term, in the origin- 
al. In all those passages which speak of persons be- 
ing possessed by devils, the devils being cast out, and 
the sufferers healed, a different word is found. We 
read * Daimonion, — not t — Diabolos, This word 
properly signifies insane persons. Hence the decla- 
ration of James is to this amount — Thou believest in 
one God. Very good. The evidences of God's ex- 
istence are so notorious, that even insane persons be- 
lieve as much as this. This belief produces fear, un- 
less it is accompanied with a true knowledge of God's 
character and purposes. An evil spirit was supposed 
to produce epilepsy, insanity, &c. Consequently, 
curing these diseases was termed casting out devils (or 
demons) destroying their power over the sufferers. 

Christ was accused by the Jews of deriving this 
power from the chief of the evil spirits. This could 
not be ; for no spirit would contribute to his own 
downfal. He gave evidence that his power was of a 
higher order ; and counfounded their ideas of the 
Magian hypothesis. The Greeks had a catalogue, of 
30,000 gods. Their heroes were deified, and their 
gods were exalted in proportion to their supposed 
prowess. When Paul preached at Athens " certain 
philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoicks, 
encountered him. And some said, What 'will this 
babbler say ? other some, He seemeth to be a setter 
forth of strange gods : because he preached unto them 

Greek * Aia^oXog, f AaitAoviov. 



22 DEMONOLOGY. 

Jesus, and the ressurrection." In the original * Dai- 
monion ; our translators were pleased in this verse of 
Scripture to translate daimonion, gods, but in all oth- 
er places where the term occurs, they have rendered 
it devils, or devil, which shows they believed the doc- 
trine of a devil without the authority of Scripture. 
There were good and evil demons, in the opinion of 
the Greeks; and the Atheninas understood Paul to 
preach that Jesus had died and was now a spirit in an- 
other world : which they signified by the term demon, 
and considered him a strange one, not having heard 
of him. This is reasonable, considering their ideas 
of theology. 

There is a species of prosopopceia, or pesonification, 
even in the Scripture, which authorises the firmest 
conviction of the truth of our position, relative to 
the personification of sin. Thus wisdom, " Wisdom 
hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven 
pillars : she hath killed her beasts ; she hnth mingled 
her wine ; she hath sent forth her maidens ; she cri- 
eth upon the highest places of the city," ty-c. It is 
therefore evident, that the personification of a thing, 
or principle, cannot be a creation of a person, or even 
a metamorphosis, by which one substance is changed 
into another. It is one of the helps to aid the mind 
of man, and increase his means of conception and 
knowledge. 

Again : The doctrine we arc attempting to dis- 
prove, is an outrageous contradiction of the most 
prominent asseverations of God's prophets. For it is 
declared, " The heart is deceitful above all things, and 
desperately wicked." A devil distinct from man, 
then, is a'supernumerary in creation, and less deceit- 
ful and wicked than man. If the temptation is sup- 
posed to come from the vilest being, the man is more 

Greek * Ac.jjxovjov, 



DEMONOLOGY. 23 

likely to tempt the devil, than the devil the man ; for 
the obvious reason, that the heart of man is deGeitful 
above all. 

We will now refer to testimony in the Sacred Vol- 
ume, which shall farther illustrate and confirm the truth 
we are trying to support. And, first, we will prove, 
that a contrary doctrine amounts to unqualified infi- 
delity ! the Scriptures are unequivocal in their decla- 
ration, that " By one man sin entered into the world, 
and death by sin," and that " By man came death." 
While, on the other hand, the popular error we are 
combating, as unequivocally declares, that by one or 
more devils sin and death entered into the world : now 
a compromise can never be effected, but by a virtual 
surrender of the devil, by an acknowledgment of the 
truth of the doctrine we avow, and associating him 
with man, as a consequence of his fleshly propensi- 
ties. 

The consideration of the temptation of the first sin- 
ner will remove all difficulty from the mind, on the 
subject. The law of God to man in Eden, required 
obedience, and forbid them to eat the specified fruit. 
Their ignorance in giving heed to their own desires, 
and distrust of their maker, proved their SIN and 
moral DEATH. God virtually declared the fruit 
would kill them, if they ate thereof. The woman 
disbelieved the Creator, and ate. — God is proved true, 
the desires of the flesh, the Serpent, a liar. " To sin is 
to miss of that good, which the divine commandment 
promises to the obedient. 

We have now exhibited concurrent testimony of 
Scripture to confirm the doctrine taught by St. Paul, 
that "in his flesh dwelt no good thing." Thus the 
devil must be sought for in the recesses of the human 
heart ; the seat of all the evil machinations which 
have disturbed the peace of man. Here is his throne. 
Here he reigns and conquers, and his fleshly dominion 



24 DEMONOLOGY. 

must be dissolved, ere the rebel receives his doom. 
The scut of the disease, and its extent, is declared by 
Paul, in his epistle to his brethren at Colosse. Of 
Christ, he writes as follows; "Ye are complete in 
him, who is the head of all principality and power, in 
whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision 
made without hands, in putting oil the body of the 
sins [not of an imaginary devil,] but of the flesh, by 
the circumcision of Christ." The subjection to van- 
ity is declared, in his epistle to the Romans, to extend 
to the creation of God. For " the creation was made 
subject to vanity." The bondage is limited to the 
rjresent life, in his epistle to the Hebrews ; declaring 
the object of Christ's mission to be the destruction of 
death.' and the cause of it, and the deliverance of 
those who were all their lifetime [and no longer,] sub- 
ject to bondage. It is also affirmed, of Christ, that 
"he both died and rose, and revived, that he might 
be Lord both of the dead and the living." And the 
apostle triumphantly exclaims, "No man dicth to 
himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, 
and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." All 
have ^owii to the flesh, and of the ilesh reaped cor- 
ruption. But that which " is sown in corroption, 
man, " shall be raised inincorruption." That which 
" is sown in dishonour, shall be raised in glory!" 
When ? 

Hear Christ. "Father, the hour is come. Glo- 
rify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." 
The inference is irresistible, it is first necessary that 
the Son be glorified, before he can glorify the Father! 
He was glorified. His prayer was heard. " For the 
sutferiim of death he was crowned with glory and hon- 
our." The members of his body, all men. are in- 
cluded in the triumph ; for " he tasted death for cve- 
r\ man." The moment of deliverance is annonnced — 
the manner of it explained. Through death— death 



DEMONOLOGY. 26 

"is destroyed ! , The bondage to corruption ceases ! 
The body of sin is put off — the dishonor is swallowed 
up in glory ! Sin, the personified devil, is no more ; 
and the freed soul wings its way, in cherubic splendour, 
to the mansions of its Father God. Can this be true ? 
Yes as true as holy writ can make it, and such truths 
are the joy of the immortal Spirit. 

Although we think that enough ' has been said' on 
this subject to satisfy an unprejudiced mind, that rea- 
son and Scripture are against the popish, degrading, 
and tormenting doctrine of a personal devil — Yet as 
we know that early, and religious notions, however 
erroneous, are very hard to overcome, and believing 
the doctrine we dispute, to be injurious to human vir- 
tue and happiness, and the one we wish to establish 
to be favorable to both, we will extend the subject of 
inquiry. 



SECTION III. 

The opinion of Plato, Heisod, and others, respecting Demons — How 
the English translators rendered the same Greek term differently 
. — Opinion of Homer and Josephus — Of the Jewish Angelology— 
Hippocrates' opinion of Demoniacs. 

In the New Testament, through the negligence, pre- 
judice, or ignorance of the translators, the word devil 
occurs as the English term for the three Greek words, 
diamon, daimonion, and diabolos ; but the latter only 
should have been rendered devils. The two first 
words are both derived from daio, to divide, and all 
the ancients used the term daimon, to signify a being, 
who distributed to man his proportion of pain and 
pleasure. Hence Daimones among the Greeks, and 
Manes among the Latins, were words of the same 
import or meaning. 

Qiasque suos palimur manes — Virgil. 

All have their manes, and their manes bear— Drydea. 

Or all their ghosts endure. '• 3 



26 DEMONOLOGY. 

Some have supposed that the word demon, in the 
sacred writings, always implies an evil spirit, or dev- 
il ; but this is a conceit of St. Augustin and others, 
which will not bear investigation. Demons, accord- 
ing to the Gentile Mythology, were middle powers 
between Sovereign God and mortal man, who per- 
formed the office of mediators, and executioners of 
the divine purposes. Of this opinion was Plato, the 
most competent judge, and consummate writer on 
this subject. Apuleius de Deo Socratis, affirms, " the 
demons are middle powers, by whom all our desires 
and deserts pass to the gods. It would derogate from 
the majesty of the celestial gods, to be concerned about 
such things ; therefore all things are done by the will, 
power, and authority of the celestial gods, but by the 
obedience and ministry of the demons.'" 

It is abundantly manifested from the best writers of 
antiquity, that demons were the supposititious ghosts 
of dead men. Hesiod, a most ancient writer, who 
flourished nine hundred years before Christ, describes 
that happy race of men, who lived in the first or gold- 
en age of the world, as being promoted, after death, 
to the rank of demons by the will of Jupiter, and ap- 
pointed to be guardians of men, and the observers of 
their good and evil actions. 

Autar epei men touto genos kata gaia kalupse 

Tui men daimonese cisi, Dios magalou diaboulas^ 

k. t. I. 
Plato agrees with Hesiod, and admits that he and 
many of the poets speak excellently, in affirming that 
when good men die, they obtain great honour and dig- 
nity, and become demons. In another place, he main- 
tains, that all who die valiantly in war, are admitted 
into Hesiod's golden generation, and constituted De- 
mons. Eusebius and Thcodoret both cite and ap- 
prove these passages, from Hesiod and Plato, and use 
them as an argument for similar dignity and honour 



DEMONOLOGY. 27 

being bestowed on saints and martyrs. Hence it is 
clear from the writings of the greatest men of antiqui- 
ty, that the term demon, originally and properly appli- 
ed to deified dead men. In this very sense, it was un- 
derstood by the philosophers at Athens, in the days of 
Paul ; for when he preached Jesus and the resurrec* 
tion, they thought he wished to introduce Christ to 
them as a demon, or deified dead man. Accordingly 
they say, "heseemeth to set forth strange demons." 
Acts 17 : 18. Here our translators were as much 
puzzled by the word demon, as by the term hades, 1 
Cor. 15: 55; for though they had constantly trans- 
lated Demon, Devil ; Hades, Hell, yet they were in the 
above places forced to abandon the doctrine of hell, 
and metamorphose their devils into gods ! It is also 
clear, from the term deisidaimonestcrous, used by Paul, 
Acts 17 : 22, that the superstition of the Athenians 
consisted in the fear and worship of these demons, 
Epiphanius, haranguing against the idolatrous worship 
of the Virgin, says, (and that very properly) Paul pre- 
dicted that " some should apostatize from sound doc- 
trines, giving heed to doctrines concerning demons, 
and become worshippers of the dead, as they were 
worshipped in Israel.'' 1 Here Epiphanius refers to 
Baalim and Astaroth, which were men and women 
deified after death. Indeed, idolatrous Israel adopted 
the model of their gods from the neighbouring nations ; 
and the opinions of Josephus concerning the demons, 
agree with the notions of the heathen philosophers. 
Homer calls Nenus, Demon — Ilaid 17,98 — 104, and 
though many of the Greek writers use theoi, kai Dai- 
mop.es, as distinct, thereby indicating different grades 
in their objects of adoration, yet demons and gods were 
generally synonymous terms. 

It is acknowledged however, that according to Plu- 
tarch, it was an ancient opinion, that some of these 
Demons fearing that good men might rival them in> 



-28 DEMONOLOGY. 

honour and happiness, or attain to equal dignity, en- 
deavoured to prevent and hinder them in the pursuit 
of virtue. Accordingly it became the opinion of phi- 
losophers, that part of the demons were wicked and 
malignant. Josephus, Wars, B. 7. C. 6. says, these 
evil demons were no other than the spirits of the 
wicked, who enter into the bodies of the living and 
kill them, unless they obtain help against them. 1 ' 
Hence the demonology of the later philosophers and 
the Pharisaic Jews, was perfectly analogous to the 
modern doctrine of good and bad angels. The whole 
system of Demonology, as also that of the Chaldean 
and Jewish Angelology, is founded on the fanciful 
supposition of separate slates of spirits, being freed 
from the body, but possessing its propensities, they as- 
sist or torment the living, accordingly as they are be- 
nevolently or malevolently disposed towards them. 
Nothing in all the reveries of a lawless imagination can 
exceed the wildness of the supposition that souls can 
subsist after death without a body, and notwithstand- 
ing, retain the corporeal passions of that body, from 
which they are disentangled ! 

Daimonion appears synonymous with Daimon. It 
is used by Zenophon and Plutarch to denote the De- 
ity : but it signifies generally, deified spirits, adored as 
mediators. When we compare 1 Cor. 8 t 4 — 7, and 
10 : 14, 20, 21. 1 Tim. 2 : 5. Rev. 9 : 20, we cannot 
fail to see that the daimonia were the objects of reli- 
gious adoration, and certainly were not considered as 
devils. Diabolos and Daimonion, are not once con- 
founded, though the first occurs above thirty, and the 
latter about sixty times, in the New Testament. The 
word devil is, therefore, a very improper translation of 
Daimon in the above texts of scripture. We admit 
that the word Daimonion, in Matt. 12: 24 — 27, and 
the parallel passage, Luke 11:1 4 — 20, is to be un- 
derstood in the evil sense according to the definition 



DEMONOLOGY. 29 

of Josephus ; and implies, that agreeably to the Jew- 
ish notions, some dead men's spirits had the power of 
annoying the living: but by no just rule of interpreta- 
tion can the word ever be rendered by the term devil. 
Demoniacs were insane or epileptic persons, who 
were incurable in those days of medical ignorance ; 
and therefore, from the violence of the symptoms, were 
regarded by the superstitious, as possessed by diaboli- 
cal agents. This view of the subject has been success- 
fully maintained by the. learned Joseph Mede, in his 
discourse on John 10 : 20, and by Lardner and Far- 
mer, on the demoniacs of the New Testament. The 
Jews mostly learned their notions of demons and an- 
gels, during the Babylonian captivity, where they be- 
came acquainted with the Persian philosophy. Being 
ignorant of physiology and pathology, they attributed 
every disease, of whose symptoms they were ignorant, 
to the influence of demons ; and from the prevalence 
of the opinion, and the credulity of the patients, the 
subjects of these sore diseases, believed themselves to 
be possessed of demons, just as the deluded creatures 
of modern times, have admitted themselves to be 
witches* Justin Martyr urges it as an argument for a 
future state of existence, that demons, whom he calls 
the spirits of the dead, seized and tormented men.— 
Chrysostom mentions it as a vulgar opinion, in his 
days, that all who died a violent death, became de- 
mons. He also tells us, that some demoniacs would 
affirm that they were possessed of the soul of such a 
monk. Homer, speaking of a man, whom a violent 
disease had wasted, says, a hateful demon had entered 
into him. From this general opinion, epilepsy obtain- 
ed the name of sacred disease. Like the Jews, the 
Romans believed in possession, but used different 
names, calling the ghosts, Larvoz, and the men pos- 
sessed, Larvati; even to the present day, the Turks 
retain similar notions of insane persons^ 
3* 



30 DEMONOLOGY. 

Probably the greater part of these silly stories about 
demoniacs, were fabricated by the Pharisees, who seiz- 
ed on every idle rumour to support their dogmas, con- 
cerning spirits, against the objections of the Saddu- 
cees. From Matt. 17 : 14 — 18, and the parallel pas- 
sages in Mark and Luke, it appears the Evangelists 
considered the demoniacs as persons affected with lu- 
nacy, or epilepsy. The Jews also identify insanity 
and possession, John 10: 20. Indeed, it is highly 
probable, that the notions of demons were rather the 
vulgar opinion, than the sober sentiment of the enlight- 
ened part of society, even in the days of Christ. 
Origen says, the physicians endeavoured to account 
for these cases in a natural way, calling them bodily 
diseases, not admitting the agency of impure spirits, 
Plotinus, a celebrated philosopher of the third century, 
blames those who ascribes to demons, diseases which, 
he says^arise from excess, indigestion, and other natu- 
ral causes, and are often cured by medicine. Hippo- 
crates, the father of medicine, whose knowledge of the 
animal economy greatly surpassed that of all others in 
his time, wrote expressly to prove that there was 
nothing supernatural in the case of supposed demoni- 
acs ; but that all the symptoms arose from natural 
causes. " When a man (says he) becomes incapable 
of speech, suffocated, foams, gnashes his teeth, shuts 
his hands close, his eyes being distorted, and falling 
down, kicks with his feet, that man has the Epilepsy.' 1 
How absurd and inconsistent with the superintending 
providence of God, to admit that the universal parent 
would allow evil spirits to take possession of his own 
children, and torment the creatures of his care, the 
object of his ceaseless love !" 



DEMONOLQGY, 31 

Definition of the Greek teim, — Diabolos — Remarks of Dr. S. Clark 
on personification, — of the number of Angels and Devils — A Devil 
the popular god of Superstition. 

Diabolos, from diaballo, to dart or to strike through, 
or to calumniate, strictly signifies, an accuser, and is 
constantly used in the Septuagint as the translation of 
Salan,&n adversary, and Zar, an enemy. If therefore 
we translate the word Diabolos into English, according 
to its proper meaning, we shall never be at a loss to 
know the devil and his occupation, nor the means of 
successful resistance. We shall be perfectly qualified 
to understand the language of Christ to the Jews and 
his apostles, John 6 : 70, and-7 : 14. Dr. S. Clark 
well observes on the last passage, that personification 
was very frequent in the language of the Jews, and 
nothing was more common than to call men by the 
appellation of that abstract quality, which principally 
predominates in their character. The phrases, chil-. 
dren of wisdom, of the devil, of God, of a murderer, 
are easily analyzed by changing the abstract for con- 
crete terms ; and reading wise, godly, persecuting or 
malevolent, children. We now clearly perceive the 
propriety of calling Judas a devil, John 6 : 70. Pe- 
ter Satan, Matt. 16 : 23. Simon Magus, a child of the 
devil, Acts 13 : 10. And slanderous women, devils, 
Titus, 2 : 3 — and how such devils go about as roaring 
lions, seeking whom they may devour* 

From the doctrine of demonology arose the Jewish 
notions of angels. The Jews in their degeneracy 
adopted many of the Heathen dogmas concerning de- 
mons, yet preferred the name of angel, to demon, as 
they did the word Paradise, to the Greek Elysium. 
They learned the names and grades of angels during 
their captivity in Babylon, and afterwards amalgama- 
ted their religion with the Platonic philosophy, in 



32 DEMONOLOGY. ' 

Egypt, during the reign of the Ptolemies. The wis^ 
dom of Solomon, and works of Philo, are standing 
evidences of this assertion. 

The Christians, in the first age of Christianity having 
embraced the same fanciful opinions, arranged them 
all under nine classes, angels, archangels, virtues, pow- 
ers, principalities, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and 
seraphim. The Talmudists multiplied the good an- 
gels to more than 300,000,000,000, and the bad to a 
number beyond all computation. Isidore and others, 
say, the number of the elect, exactly equals that of the 
fallen angels, being chosen from men to fill the places 
vacated by their rebellion. But Daillon affirms, there 
is only one devil, and the Christians borrowed a plu- 
rality from the heathen ; whilst Averroes maintains, 
there is no devil at all ! ! ! Here then we come 
to the Scriptures to decide the controversy. From 
Matt. 18: 12. and Heb. 2 : 16, Hilary determines 
that angels, are to men, as a hundred to one. Fallen 
angels, cries another, must be more than five thousand, 
for a demoniac said, my name is legion, Luke 8 : 30. 
One third exactly of the angels fell, exclaims another, 
for the dragon's tail drew a third part of the stars from 
heaven, Rev. 12:3. It is certain, adds a fourth, that 
good angels are more numerous than the bad, for we 
read of twelve legions of the former, and only one of 
the latter. Matt. 16: 53. 

But while we disprove the existence of such fanci- 
ful beings, a thousand voices exclaim, we have seen 
them ! If so, why may we not also obtain a view ? 
Come forth, then, whatever ye are — shadows or sub- 
stances, spirits sublimated, or transmuted natures — ye 
who have left your clay to wither, and become the 
messengers of heaven, and tread the winds and the 
star-sown wilderness above us ! Come down from your 
stately heights, and stand visible before us ! Or, if in- 
deed ye live in the grave, or haunt on Purgatorial shores* 



DEMONOLOGY. 33 

pale tenants of the dim Elysium — Arise, and be mani- 
fest ! No, they appear not, but to their deluded vota- 
ries, to the believers of such fables, and no unbeliever 
can ever obtain a glimpse, even though it were by the 
pale light of the moon ! ! 

How deplorable is the state of the human mind, de- 
graded by superstition ! Fear being the mother of su- 
perstition, we may reasonably expect her god to be hi- 
deous and terrific. Hence an imaginary devil has ob- 
tained the greatest veneration in many countries of 
Asia and Africa : and even at this time, however in- 
credible, his worship is very prevalent throughout all 
Christendom. Being the popular god of modern super- 
stition, if any independent man, who dares to think 5 
or express a doubt of his existence, the alarm is sound- 
ed, and fearing that the empire of the god of this world 
is about to be upset, all who wonder after the beasts, 
hasten to cry out for whole hours, Great is the Devil 
we adore ! Be not surprised, the existence and influ- 
ence of the devil are as necessary to the creeds of 
modern times, as the honours of Diana were to the 
craftsmen of Ephesus. 

From what has been already said, it is fully mani- 
fest, that among the various objects of blinded nations 9 
fear, the ghosts of departed heroes were admitted at 
a very early period. It was imagined by weak and 
perverted minds, that men who had distinguished them- 
selves, in this world, by either good or evil actions, 
would retain their dispositions in the next ; and be 
actively engaged in promoting the welfare of mankind, 
or plotting their ruin, as far as those propensities exci- 
ted, or their influence extended. Therefore, men be- 
came naturally inclined to honour the good spirits for 
their services, and offer sacrifices to the evil, to placate 
their malevolence ! We have also seen that Plato 
and many other eminent philosophers, taught that all 
intercourse between the Deity and mankind was car- 



34 DEMONOLOGY. 

ried on by means of demons, who ought on that ac- 
count to receive divine homage ; and that this doctrine 
was received by ma-.iy of the heathen nations, and 
even by many of the Jews, especially the Essens, who 
believed that thousands of these demons officiated as 
mediators with Jehovah, a. id therefore ought to be 
worshipped. That it was also a general opinion, that 
acute diseases, plagues, apoplexies, epilepsies, were 
operated by demons, or ghosts of wicked men, who 
entered human bodies and destroyed those who were 
not powerfully supported by the good demons. Ac- 
cordingly we find, that in ail the passages of scripture, 
which speak of persons possessed of devils, the origin- 
al word is daimonion, and not diabolos, which should 
not therefore have been translated devil, nor devils. 

But it appears to have been an early and much 
agitated question among the ancient philosophers, 
whence sprang that moral and physical evil, which so 
often weakens the enjoyment and destroys the happi- 
ness of mankind. Being unwilling to abase humaa 
pride, by charging it on man, or to attribute malevo- 
lence to the Deity, they imagined the existence of a 
wicked spirit to be absolutely necessary to the exist- 
ence and continuance of disorder and'pain in the world. 
But the quantum of evil being so great, they supposed 
that the evil spirit must nearly equal the Deity himself 
in wisdom and power. This doctrine of devilism was 
derived from the Persian theology, which taught the 
co-existence and nearly co-equality of two great first 
causes ; the one the author of all good, the other the 
source of all evil. This absurd opinion was the inven- 
tion of their Magi, who were unable to account for 
the origin of evil, on any other principles. Very dif- 
ferent from this wild fancy, was the message of Jeho- 
vah to Cyrus, by the prophet Isaiah, which reproves 
the foolish sentiment, and declares Jehovah to be the 
author of light and darkness, and the Creator of both 



DEMONOLOGY. So 

good and evil. Indeed it is altogether impossible that 
good or evil could exist otherwise ; for that God who 
iills the immensity of space, must enclose in his very 
nature beings to whom he gave existence, and by 
whose fatherly care they are preserved. Hence it fol- 
lows that the notion of the existence and influence of 
the devil, is altogether inconsistent with correct and 
scriptural views of the divine nature and character. 
If a devil exist, he must be the rival or servant of the 
AJmighty. The first supposition is atheistic ; for if 
there be a God, he is without a rival ; nor would he 
suffer his designs to be frustrated, nor employ a servant 
to violate his laws, nor disturb the peace of his empire. 
But, says the objector, if there be no devil, then there 
is no God, no hell, no need of preaching ! I would 
not have noticed such manifest puerilities, were they 
not proclaimed by the doctors of divinity and theolo- 
gical professors of our day, who sound the watchword 
of heresy, and lead the van of persecution. Is there 
no proof of God's existence but that the devil needs an 
opposer ? O fie ! Must God exist, and we preach for 
the devil's sake ? Shame on those men, who sacri- 
fice truth, and insult good sense to fan the fire of fanat- 
icism ! Is the devil the maker and governor of the 
infernal regions ? Then certainly he will take good 
care not to torment himself nor his friends. The 
wicked have nothing to fear, for if any suffer, they 
must be the pious servants of God, who have rebelled 
against his satanic majesty. Moreover, if the devil be 
the director of hell, and fallen angels the inflictors of 
its punishments, can these unfortunate sufferers be the 
tormentors of men who have been equally unfortunate 
as themselves ? Then surely the devil and his angels 
are God's servants, and must receive the reward of 
their services. But are God's servants unhappy, and 
will virtue and misery be long connected ? If not, 
then it follows that devils will become saints, and hell 
a field of liberty ! 



36 DEMONOLOGY. 

The term Satan, indicates no more than that pro~ 
pensity to evil so frequently observable in human con- 
duct, and which, like the chemical doctrines of phlo- 
giston and caloric, is of great utility for the explana- 
tion of difficulties. All classical readers know that 
the most beautiful writings abound with bold, figura- 
tive, and hyperbolical descriptions. That nothing is 
more ornamental in poetry, than prosopopoeia, or the 
representation of good and evil qualities, virtues and 
vices, by personal characters. The word Satan, sig- 
nifies an adversary, and sometimes it only denotes the 
abstract quality, calumny. Our translators have ren- 
dered it, accordingly, throughout the Bible. Though 
the term Satan occurs frequently in the scriptures, yet 
generally some human being is intended. David is 
so called, 1 Sam. 29 : 4. Hadad is denominated Sol- 
omon's devil or satan, 1 Kings, 11 : 14. David de- 
scribes those who rendered him evil for good as his 
satans ; and prays that his satans might be clothed 
with shame. Ps. 109 : 20, 29. Jesus calls Peter 
satan, and Judas a devil, Matt. 16 : 23. John 6 : 70. 
In the New-Testament, treacherous men, slanderous 
women, and opponents of every kind, are called sa- 
ta.is or devils ; and these words signify no more than 
adverse propensities. Indeed it would be an impious 
reflection on the character of the Deity, to suppose 
he had formed and let loose myriads of malevolent 
spirits to destroy the happiness of mankind. 

If it be demanded, Whence arise those inducements 
to evil, which so often disturb the peace of society, 
and ruin man's happiness ? the answer is both easy 
and scriptural. The heart is deceitful, and every man 
is tempted when he is drawn aside, or enticed by ani- 
mal passions or bodily appetites. These expose us to 
innumerable trials and temptations. Intemperance, 
avarice, ambition, envy, and discontentment beset us 
in their turns, and without the utmost vigilance and 



DEMONOLOGY. 37 

circumspection, we are in danger of being overcome. 
Now can the just and merciful Cod, the father of man- 
kind, and moral governor of the world, think these 
propensities to evil so insufficient for the trial of our 
vittues, that he must superadd the agency of an evil 
being, so subtle, so malicious, and so powerful as the 
devil ? What a desperate chance have we of succeed- 
ing against such an adversary ! Shall we say, good is 
the will of the Lord, and that in all this he has done all 
things in wisdom ! Banished for ever be the thought 
from all rational and serious persons. God could no 
more act thus than cease to exist. Every principle 
of his nature holds such conduct in eternal abhor- 
rence ! ! 

Let the believers in a devil consider, 1 . That the 
belief of his existence constitutes no fundamental ar- 
ticle of the christian faith ; no part of the New Testa- 
ment states the necessity of believing such an unrea- 
sonable doctrine. If particular passages seem to im- 
ply it, or cannot be clearly explained or understood, 
yet no inference should be drawn from a few passages 
that would contradict the decisions of reason, and the 
general tenor of scripture. 2. It is perfectly consist- 
ent with the mission of Jesus to adopt the language of 
the country on all subjects, which did not constitute 
the main objects of that mission. Christ came not to 
teach men philosophy, neither to spend his time in 
combating the Jewish demonology. Every reasona- 
ble person, on whose mind the rays of science have 
shined, will readily admit that neither the astronomy 
nor cosmogony of Moses will stand the test of modern 
experience : and might not our Lord as consistently 
use the foolish language of the Jews about Demons, 
Demoniacs, and Devils, as Moses the absurd and fan- 
ciful opinions of the ancients concerning astronomy ? 
3. There is no passage that can be adduced to support 
the doctrine of a devil, which does not contradict some 
4 



38 DEMONOLOGY. 

part of the received opinions on that dogma — but ev- 
ery text in all the scriptures which speaks of the devil 
or satan,can be fairly interpreted or explained, con- 
sistently with the whole tenor of scripture, on the sup- 
position that there is no such being, but that these 
words universally mean an adversary, or something 
adverse. 

We might have expected that the most pertinacious 
believers in a devil, would have rejoiced to find, that 
reason, scripture, and common sense, are equally op- 
posed to the terrifying dogma. But, alas ! such are 
the religious infatuation and credulity of mankind, 
that an opinion once admitted is seldom rejected, how- 
ever palpably absurd or monstrously ridiculous. — 
Hence we find christians cling as close to this doc- 
trine, as if their present and future happiness depend- 
ed on the existence and influence of an infernal fiend ! 
Atheism and the disbelief of a devil, vibrate the same 
feelings of horror in the superstitious mind ; and, 
perhaps, atheism itself is deemed by some to be less 
impious. But if a devil there be, possessing those 
powers and attributes generally ascribed to him, athe- 
ism becomes acceptable, and loses all its hideou3 
forms, for the existence of such a being proves the 
non-existence of God, or that he is deficient in wis- 
dom, goodness, and power. Why then should men be 
alarmed, when this doctrine is attacked or disputed.; 
and why should the war-whoop of party be sounded, 
when we attempt to disprove and explode this injuri- 
ous and unreasonable opinion ? Has the devil created 
the universe, and filled it with inhabitants ? Is he the 
author of all good, on whom our present and future 
happiness depends ? Did all being start into existence 
at his command, or is it supported by his power ? Is his 
dominion unbounded and perpetual, and shall his au- 
thoritative voice awake the myriads of the dead, de- 
termine their doom, appoint heaven as a reward for 



DEMONOLOGY. 38 

his enemies, and people the Tartarian gulf with his 
allies and friends ? What impious absurdity ! Jehovah 
alone holds the reins of universal empire, and all that 
can excite our hopes in this world, or our perfect feli- 
city in the next, is unconnected with a satanic being. 

If the doctrine that teaches the existence and influ- 
ence of a devil, involves serious consequences, if it be 
anti-scriptural and unphilosophical, if it be fatal to 
man's moral improvement, if it poison the stream of 
religious knowledge at the fonntain head, by supposing 
that God has a powerful antagonist, whose designs he 
has been unable to frustrate, and whose rebellion shall 
be as durable as the Divine existence, — in short, if 
correct notions of the Divine character and govern- 
ment be inconsistent with the belief in such a being — 
for the honour of God and religion, let the infamous 
doctrine be for ever rejected. 

Those who believe in the existence of a devil, sup- 
pose that the evil, which prevails in this world, re- 
sults from his infernal agency; and also expect that 
evil to become still greater in another and future state 
of being. There they look 'for a hell, crowded with 
inhabitants, through the resistless powers of diaboli- 
cal influence : and this reign of misery, this triumph 
of the devil, they expect to be so complete and signal, 
as to undergo no change through the revolution of eter- 
nal ages ! ! How can persons who expect such a ca- 
tastrophe of human affairs, have correct notions of 
that God, who is all benevolence ; whose plans are 
conceived in wisdom and executed in mercy ; whose 
power cannot be resisted, and whose very name and 
nature are Love ! Those who think God has a compet- 
itor, must deny the absolute will of the Deity, and his 
general providence. They derogate from his suprem- 
acy, and eclipse his glory. They dishonour him, and 
perplex themselves with wild and embarrassing con- 
clusions. In a word, they conjure up a devil to their 



40 DEMONOLOGY. 

own confusion, to the injury of christian truth, and the 
$erious mischief of morality. The fear of a devil 
may perhaps keep some men of weak minds from ex- 
cessive vice, and make them slavishly religious, and 
hypocritically moral. But the love of God alone, pro- 
ceeding from a grateful recollection of his goodness 
and providential care, can produce genuine piety and 
virtue. 

It is somewhat outrageous to suppose, that the devil 
will punish wicked men who sinned by his instigation, 
and performed all their wicked deeds, in obedience to 
his desires. Can the punishment of sinners be inflict- 
ed by that being whom they never offended ; and God, 
whose laws have been violated, have no concern in 
their sufferings ? The belief in the existence of a devil 
is equally injurious to virtue, simplicity, and christian 
truth. It affords a palliative for crimes, and induces 
men to believe that wicked thoughts and evil actions, 
have not been fomented in their own hearts, but spring 
from the suggestions of a wicked one. Sometimes 
men are hurried into enormities, conceiving them- 
selves particularly tempted, at which their mild na- 
tures would shudder, were they not influenced by this 
deceitful doctrine. 

If the belief in a devil did not obtain, men must ei- 
ther trace their sins to God as the author, or admit 
they originate with themselves ; and as they could not 
presume to charge God directly with sin, they would 
of necessity, acknowledge their own accountability ; 
and repentance producing reformation, might justly be 
expected to result from such a happy conviction. An- 
other serious evil arising from a belief in the existence 
of a devil, is the continual alarm and terror that reigns 
in the weak mind tinctured with superstition, by the 
apprehension of satanic machination and artifice. Ev- 
ery inclination to enjoyment, every expostulation on 
religious faith, and even every suggestion of truth, 



DEMONOLOGY. 41 

though in the very words of scripture, if it seems to 
contradict long received opinions, are all attributed to 
the seduction of Satan ; and thus the perpetual dread 
of an imaginary being, keeps the mind in darkness, and 
the heart in palpitation. Wild enthusiasm, gloomy 
superstition, and a long train of delusive thoughts, suc- 
cessively distract the serious mind which is unfortu- 
nately beclouded by a belief in the devil. And what 
is worse, men suppose him to be so refined in subtlety, 
and so resistless in power, that vigilance is almost use- 
less, and the strongest heart cannot feel subjection to 
his will without horror and dismay. Hence a belief 
in the existence of the devil, has driven many weak 
persons to despair, which most assuredly is the natural 
consequence of such a wild doctrine. What idea must 
those men have of God, who believe he has placed 
his feeble creatures in a situation so hopeless and cru- 
el ? Must they not conclude that God created man for 
the purpose of making him miserable ? And can the 
Creator be an object of love, veneration, and grati- 
tude, while he is viewed in connexion with a malig- 
nant devil ? 

If the account we have given of the devil be just, 
then all notions of witchcraft, or of being possessed by 
the devil, are vain and groundless. 'Tis all deceit 
and imposition on the weakness and credulity of man- 
kind ! For shame! Let us entertain more honourable 
sentiments of the moral government of God. Let us. 
think ourselves safe under the protection of his provi- 
dence ; safe from the malice both of devils and wick- 
ed men. Let us learn, not to disturb ourselves with 
any vain or superstitious fears of evil spirits, for we 
are not subject to any malicious powerful beings.. The 
Lord God Omnipotent reigns alone, whose tender 
mercies are over all his works. This consideration 
should fill us with ease and tranquillity, otherwise we do 
not give God the honour due to him ; we do not re- 

4* 



42 DEMONOLOGY. 

pose that confidence in his providence, which his wis- 
dom and goodness require, and the security of our own 
happiness demands. Ohow different from the doc- 
trines of devils, are the views of God exhibited in the 
gospel of Jesus ! There we read of one God and Fa- 
ther of all, who is above all, through all, and in us all. 
That it is his gracious intention to save and render 
eternally happy all his intelligent offspring. There 
we behold no mighty devil to blacken the moral hori- 
zon, or frustrate and baffle the designs of the Deity. 
But on the contrary, a religion all mild and beautiful, 
that breathes nothing but pure benevolence, and evi- 
dently indicates the approximation of a period, in which 
truth will completely triumph over error, and happi- 
ness be universal. Amen ! 

SECTION V. 

Observations relative to the Hebrew word Shailan, called Sa- 
tan, in our common version. — An extract from Pndeaux, on the 
Magian philosophy, as revived by Zoroaster. 

The most eminent lexicographers agree in the mean- 
ing of the term Satan. They uniformly allow that 
it signifies an adversary. The first passage in which 
we find it, is Gen. 26 : 21 . " And they digged anoth- 
er well, and strove for that also : and he called the 
name of it Sitnah." Very little attention to the 
context will convince any man, why the well was 
called Sitnah, or Satan, in the sense of an adversary. 
The herdmen of Gerar strove with, or more proper* 
ly against, the herdmen of Isaac, and were adversa- 
ries, therefore the name was called Satan, signifying 
adversary. But this is further made evident by verse 
27, where Isaac says to Abimelech, who went from 
Gerar to make a treaty with him — " Wherefore come 
ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away 



DEMONOLOGY. 43 

from you '? And in the margin of the 21st verse, we 
find hatred given as the signification of Satan, or ad- 
versary. 

The comment on this passage is then very plain, 
without referring to any supernatural agency. The 
well was called Satan, hecause the hatred of the men 
of Gerar had deprived Isaac of its possession. The 
first time we find it in Scripture, then, it is applied as 
a noun feminine, to an insensible object. In this 
place, therefore, we look in vain for a personal 
devil. 

The next use of this term is to an angel of the Lord, 
Num. 22 : 22, 32. where the writer, alluding to Ba- 
laam, says — " And the angel of the Lord stood in the 
way for an adversary [satan] against him. Behold 
I went out to withstand thee [or to be a satan to thee] 
because thy way is perverse before me." The word 
satan occurs here twice in the original ; in one case 
it is rendered adversary, and in the other, to withstand 
thee. The marginal reading to the last verse, is, " to 
be an adversary unto thee." Whether common 
opinion of the word satan, or that which is here men- 
tioned, on the authority of Scripture, and with the 
sanction of the greatest scholars in the orthodox 
ranks, you are permitted to judge for yourselves. 

When the princes of the Philistines remonstrated 
with the king against permitting David to go with 
them to battle against the Israelites, 1 Sam. 29 : 4. 
David is called a satan, translated adversary in the 
common version. In 2 Sam. 19 : 22. the sons of 
Zeruiah are expressly called satans in the original, 
and adversaries in the translation. In 1 Kings, 5 : 
4. king Solomon, adverting to his having peace on 
every side, and of the favourable opportunity which 
this circumstance afforded, of fulfilling the word of 
the Lord to his father, respecting the building of a 
temple, says, there is u neither adversary nor evil oc- 



44 DEMONOLOGY. 

current." In the original, the word here rendered 
adversary is satan. The believers in a personal dev- 
il, who existed in a state of beatitude long anterior to 
the race of man, and finally fell from heaven, by sin- 
ning, are welcome to this text if they fancy it favour,* 
their views. 

But notwithstanding Solomon congratulated him- 
self at this time on the non-existence of a satan, he 
was afterwards troubled by a number of them. For 
we find in the 11th chapter of the same book, 14, 23, 
25. thatHadad the Edomite, Rezon the son of Elia- 
dah, and Hadadezer, king of Zobah, had become his 
adversaries, or satans. 

The first place where satan appears in our common 
Bible, is 1 Chron. 21 : 1. " And satan stood up against 
Tsrael and provoked David to number Israel." Had 
the word satan been translated adversary, as in form- 
er instances, who would think of imputing to this pas- 
sage a meaning which involves the whole history in 
the most ridiculous absurdity ? What — did an infernal 
being, in propria persona, stand up before David to 
tempt him, and did the king of Israel listen to his ad- 
vice ? Let the confession of David in the 17th verse, 
give the answer. " Even I it is that have sinned^ 
and done evil indeed." He imputes nothing to any 
satan but himself, nor do we read of any punishment 
inflicted on satan for the evil deed. Let us impute 
this to the pride of David's heart, the lust of con- 
quest and dominion, or the honour of commanding a 
numerous and warlike host, and we shall be little lia- 
ble to go wrong. 

We have looked, but looked in vain, for any infor- 
mation relative the the orthodox devil. The satans 
of the Old Testament were in no wise connected with 
the schemes of modern divinity. A well, an angel of 
the Lord, David, and various others, bear that appel- 
lation in Scripture, and in Ezra, 4 : 6, a piece of 



BEMONOLOGY. 45 

writing is termed a satan, and is translated accusation! 
With all these facts before us, where shall we look for 
the origin of the idea generally attached to this word? 
We must look for it in the principles of the Magian 
philosophers, as given by Prideaux, and recollect that 
his testimony is that of an advocate for orthodoxy. 

This able writer, speaking of the popular opinions 
of the age and country of Job, in his Connexions, vol. 
1. pp. 185 — 6. as quoted by Mr. Balfour, says : "Di- 
rectly opposite to these were the Magians, another 
sect, who had their original in the same eastern coun- 
tries ; for they, abominating all images, worshipped 
God only by lire. They began first in Persia, and 
there, and in India, were the only places where this 
?ect was propagated ; and there they remain even to 
this day. Their chief doctrine was, that there were 
two principles, one which was the cause of all good, 
and the other the cause of all evil, that is to say, God 
and the devil ; that the former is represented by light, 
and the other by darkness, as their truest symbols ; 
and that, of the composition of these two, all things 
are made : the good god they name Yazdan, and also 
Ormudz, and the evil god, Ahraman : the former is 
by the Greeks called Oramasdez, and the latter Ari- 
manius. And therefore, when Xerxes prayed for that 
evil upon his enemies, that it might be put into the 
minds of all of them to drive their best and bravest 
men from them, as the Athenians had Themistocles, 
he addressed his prayer to Arimanius, the evil god of 
the Persians, and not to Oramasdez, their good god. 
And concerning these two gods there was this differ- 
ence of opinion among them, that whereas some held 
both of them to have been from all eternity, there 
were others that contended, that the good s;od only 
was eternal, and that the other was created. But they 
both agreed in this, that there will be a continual op- 
position between these two till the end of the world : 



46 DEMONOLOGY. 

that then the good god shall overcome the evil god, 
and that from thenceforward each of them shall have 
his world to himself, that is, the good god his world 
with all good men with him, and the evil god his world 
with all evil men with him ; that darkness is the truest 
symbol of the evil god, and light the truest symbol of 
the good god. And therefore they always worship- 
ped him with fire, as being the cause of light, and es- 
pecially before the sun, as being in their opinion the 
perfectest tire, and causing the perfectest light. And 
for this reason, in all their temples, they had lire con- 
tinually burning on altars erected in them for that pur- 
pose. And before these sacred fires they offered up 
all their public devotions, as likewise they did all their 
private devotions before their private fires in their 
own houses. Thus did they pay the highest honour to 
light, as being in their opinion the truest representa- 
tive of the good god ; but always hated darkness, as 
being, what they thought, the truest representative of 
the evil god, whom they ever had in the utmost de- 
testation, as we now have the devil : and,*for an in- 
stance hereof, whenever they had an occasion in any 
of their writings to mention his name, they always 
wrote it backward, and inverted, as thus, ireuie.iiry." 

Here Mr. Balfour, arguing on the subject of Job's 
troubles, and the imputed agency of an evil spirit as 
the cause of them, thus speaks : — 

But what shows such opinions prevailed where Job 
lived, are the facts and circumstances mentioned in 
the account itself. These we shall notice presently. 
Here T would only say, that it is evident satan is in- 
troduced as an evil being, and it is generally contend- 
ed that he was the author of all Job's afflictions. 
This perfectly agrees to the opinions of the Magians, 
as stated by Prideaux. Besides, previous Scripture 
usage of the term satan, forbids us thinking, that the 
sacred writers recognized either an evil god or a fallen 



DEMONOLOGY. 47 

angel under this name. Where, let me ask, do any 
of them intimate, that an evil being, such as the Per- 
sian evil god, or the Christian's devil, existed as a 
rival to Jehovah ? To what else then could the writer 
refer, but to such heathen opinions ? If such a being 
as the Christian's devil existed, how is it accounted 
for, that he remained so quiet until the days of Job ? 
Job appears to have been the first man he ever 
troubled, from the creation of the world. Noah, Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, with many others were good 
men, and rich men, but he never attempted to injure 
them in their property, or smite them with a single 
boil in their whole lifetime. From any thing which 
appears to the contrary, they had no fear of such a 
being nor knew of his existence. Had satan just 
fallen from heaven, in the days of Job, and began his 
depredations on mankind ? Admitting this true, how 
is it, that as Job was the first, so he was the last 
man he ever so tormented ? The case of the woman, 
whom he is said to have bound eighteen years, is no 
exception to this, as we shall show, Section 5. Let 
it be accounted for then, why satan had such a partic- 
ular hatred against Job, above all other men before 
or since. It is easily perceived, that these things are 
rationally accounted for, on the presumption, that in 
this account there is a reference to the evil god of the 
people among whom Job lived. Allowing this, the 
account is just what might be expected. The cha- 
racter given to satan, answers to that of their god, 
whom they believed to be the author and director of 
all evil. 

The question which now comes forward for con- 
sideration is — Was this account of satan introduced 
for the purpose of establishing, or was it introduced 
to refute such opinions 1 Let satan here be consider- 
ed, either the evil principle deified, or the devil of 
Christians, were such opinions intended to be sane- 



48 DEMONOLOGY. 

tioned by the writer, or does he introduce them, to 
expose their fallacy, and establish the supremacy of 
the one living and true God in opposition to them ? 
All 1 think will agree, that the whole must stand ap- 
proved or condemned. No middle path can be here 
taken, for no ground is afforded for it. It is then a 
matter of no consequence, whether we consider satan 
in this account the principle of evil deified, or, that he 
was the Christian's devil. Whether the same or dif- 
ferent, I shall proceed to show, by direct, and I think 
conclusive evidence, that neither of them had any in- 
fluence in producing Job's afflictions. That they 
were all sent by the one living and true God, whom 
Job feared and obeyed, is evident, 

- 1st. From Job's own testimony concerning his af- 
flictions. Job's heathen neighbours supposed their 
evil god Ahraman was the cause of them. Christians 
believe their satan or devil was the cause of them. 
But does Job ascribe them to either ? No, when one 
messenger after another is represented as announcing 
to him the loss of his property, and at last the death 
of his children, he says — " The Lord gave and the 
Lord taketh away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." 
chap. 1 : 21. He does not for a moment admit that 
either Ahraman or the devil had any kind of * ncern 
in his afflictions. He no more admits their influence 
in taking away his property and children, than in the 
bestowment of them. The giving and taking them 
away are alike ascribed to Jehovah. Similar were 
his views and feelings, when afflicted with sore boils. 
His wife desired him to curse God and die. But he 
says to her — " Thou speakcst as one of the foolish 
women speaketh. What ! shall we receive good at 
the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" 
Job 2 : 9, 10. Does this look like acknowledging the 
Persian evil god or the Christian's devil ? Notwith- 
standing the popular opinions, that Ahraman was the 



DEMONOLOGY, 49 

cause of all evil, the severe bodily pain he suffered^ 
and the taunts of his wife, he holds fast his integrity in 
the true God. Now, permit me to ask, if Job had be- 
lieved, that either Ahraman or the devil brought his 
afflictions upon him, why did he ascribe them all to 
the true God without reservation ? And why did he 
not correct his wife's mistake, by telling her, that 
Ahraman or the devil ought to be cursed ? But Job 
had no faith in either, hence he told her, that she spoke 
as one of the foolish or heathen women speaketh. Job 
allowed of but one God, and it is evident, that his ad- 
versity and prosperity are both alike ascribed to him. 
See chap. 42 : 10—12. and 1 : 21. 

2d. The speech of Job's wife, and his reply to her, 
shows, that neither Ahraman nor the devil was the 
cause of his afflictions. She no doubt heard what he 
said, chap. 1:21. Upon seeing him still persisting in 
his integrity under his affliction of the boils, she was 
provoked at him, and in taunting language says to him, 
— "dost thou still regain thy integrity? Curse God 
and die." On the word rendered to curse, Parkhurst 
thus Writes : " The Lexicons have absurdly, and con- 
trary to the authority of the ancient versions given to 
this verb the sense of cursing in the six following pas- 
sages— 1 Kings, 21 : 10, 13. Job 1 : 5, 11. And 2 : 
5- 9. As to the two first the Seventy render Berek, m 
both, by eulogeo, and so the Vulgate by benedico, to bless. 
And though Jezebel was herself an abominable idola- 
tress, yet as the law of Moses still continued in force, 
she seems to have been wicked enough to have des- 
troyed Naboth upon the false accusation of blessing the 
heathen aleim and Moloch, which subjected him to 
death, by Deut. 13: 6. and 17: 2—7. Job's fear, 
chap. 1 : 5. was, lest his sons should have blessed the 
false akim ; and verse 11. he says ought to be render- 
ed — ( And indeed stretch forth thy hand now, and 
touch all that he hath, surely he hath blessed thee to 
5 



50 DEMONOLOGY. 

thy face,' i. e. hypocritically ; the verb being used in 
a past tense. The Seventy render it, truly he will 
bless thee to thy face. And the Vulgate— unless he 
hath blessed thee to thy face, Comp. verses 5,7. And 
1 Kings 20 : 23. Satan brings the same charge of 
hypocrisy against Job, chap. 2: 5. which the Seventy, 
Theodotian and Vulgate rendered in the same man- 
ner. And at verse 9. his wife says to him, dost thou 
yet retain thy integrity, thy regard for the true God, 
blessing the aleim and dying, or even to death V — 
Thus far Parkhnrst, whose remarks shed additional 
light on this account. They agree with the usage of 
the word, which is rendered to bless, in other texts : 
they also accord, with the charge of hypocrisy, which 
is brought against Job by his friends throughout the 
book. But what deserves particular notice, these re- 
marks show, that Job lived among a people who had 
a false aleim or god, and a contrast if not a contest 
between this god aud Jehovah is set forth in the ac- 
count. The false god is spoken of as one, and not 
many, and what god could this be but Ahraman ? For 
the Persians had only two, their good god and their 
evil god. That a contrast is set forth betwixt the 
false god and the true, is evident from Job's fear, 
chap. 1 : 5. lest his children should have blessed the 
false aleim or god, instead of cursing the true God as 
in the common version. It is also plain from the 
speech of his wife, who, instead of desiring Job to 
curse the true God, expresses her surprise, that he 
should continue to bless him though at the point of 
death in suffering from his hands. It is apparent, that 
she believed in Ahraman, and entertained the opin- 
ions concerning him as stated above by Prideaux. 
She was displeased with her husband, for continuing 
to trust in the true God at the gates of death, and 
even blessing him for his afflictions. In desiring him 
to renounce his confidence in the true God, did she 



DEMONOLOGY. 51 

mean that he should become an atheist, or live with- 
out any God? No ; she impliedly wished him to trust 
in Ahraman, the evil god, the author of all evil, and 
the cause of all his afflictions. Job had despised him, 
and continued to trust in the true God to the last. 
She therefore wished him to abandon this confidence, 
and trust in the evil god, the true author of his afflic- 
tions. By doing so, he would become his friend, re- 
move his afflictions, or terminate them by death. 

3d. That this account of satan, is introduced to be 
condemned, and not sanctioned, appears from the 
reasonings of Job and his friends throughout the whole 
book. Job's friends, like himself, did not believe in 
Ahraman, for they maintain, that Jehovah, on account 
of his hypocrisy and wickedness, had sent such afflic* 
tions upon him. But I ask, does any one of them ev- 
er intimate that satan, whether Persian god or Chris- 
tian devil, had produced his afflictions ? No ; they are 
to a man agreed, that they were the doings of Jeho- 
vah, nor do they insinuate, that he used satan as a tool 
in producing them. As a specimen of their sentiments 
on this subject, let the reader consult chap. 4 : 9. and 
v. 17, 18. and 8 : 3, 4. Job defends himself against 
the charge of hypocrisy and wickedness brought by 
his friends. See as examples chap. 6 : 4, 5. 7 : 20, 
21. 9: 16—18. 10: 2. 16: 11—15. and 19, 21. 
We may then appeal to every candid man, whether 
Job's friends, would have been silent about satan pro- 
ducing his afflictions, if they believed so. And had 
they believed 'satan or Ahraman the author of all evil, 
would they have ascribed his afflictions to Jehovah ? 
Besides ; had Job or his friends believed, that Jeho- 
vah used satan as an instrument in inflicting them, 
why is nothing said about it, either in their charge or 
his defence? In repelling their accusations, would 
Job have failed to urge that his afflictions arose from 
satan's great enmity against him, had he but suspected 



32 demonology; 

that this was true. All know, that people are ndt 
very scrupulous now in blaming the devil. Nothing 
could have been easier or more natural, than for Job 
to repel the charges against him by saying, that satan 
hated him and had thus afflicted him. Can any man 
then believe, that this account was introduced to es- 
tablish the existence of such an evil being, yet this be 
contradicted by Job and his friends throughout the 
book ? If true, why not rather go on to confirm such 
a doctrine ? Is it objected — " if false why introduce it 
at all ?" I answer ; for the very purpose of refuting 
such an opinion, and for establishing the unity and 
supremacy of the one living and true God. It is well 
known, that false gods are often introduced in Scrip- 
ture, in contrast with the true, for the very purpose of 
exposing their absurdity. But I ask, is any false god 
ever allowed to be able to do good or evil ? No 5 
they are challenged to do either, to prove that they 
are gods. It is admitted by every intelligent man, that 
in the after parts of the Old Testament, and in the 
New, there are allusions to the evil principle deified, 
or the evil god of the Persians. And to darkness as 
the symbol of this god. See a specimen of these, 
and how the sacred writers expose such a doctrine, 
Isai. 45 : 5—7. 2 Cor. 6 : 15. 10: 3. and 11: 13. 
Eph. G: 10. 

4th. Job's afflictions are referred to, James 5 : 11. 
and his patience under them, is set forth as an ex- 
ample to us, but not ascribed to satan, but to Jeho- 
vah. Indeed no sacred writer, these' two chapters 
excepted, say or insinuate that Ahraman or satan had 
any influence in producing them. But I have a right 
to demand, why no sacred writer has done this, if 
they believe as most people do now that satan was the 
author of Job's afflictions ? If they had the same view 
of those two chapters as most people now have, is it 
possible that they would have been silent on such a 
subject? 



. DEMONOLOGY, 53 

5th. However prone the Jews were to idolary, and 
the superstitions of the nations around them, it was a 
truth obviously taught in their Scriptures, that their 
God was good, and that he had no evil being as a riv- 
al to him. So far from giving any countenance to an 
evil being called Ahraman, Satan, Devil, or by any 
other name, all witchcraft, necromancy, or appeals to 
any other being or power stand condemned, and the 
Jews were solemnly charged to have no concern with 
them. Jehovah, and he alone, is declared to be the 
creator, preserver, and ruler of all things, and all be- 
ings in the universe. Life and death, sickness and 
health, prosperity and adversity, are all ascribed to him. 
See Gen. 1:1. Dan. 4 : 35. 1 Sam. 2 : 6, 7. Isai. 
45 : 7. Amos 3 : 6. Micah 1 : 12. Psalm 33 : 14 — 
15. Prov. 16 : 4, 9. and 21 : 30. The idea of an evil 
being, which Christians call the devil and satan, and 
other nations have designated by a variety of names, 
found no place in the Jewish Scriptures. That the 
Jews learnt such opinions from the heathen, we shall 
see in the next Section. In concluding our remarks 
on this account of satan in the book of Job, let us com- 
pare what is said in it, with the above quotation from 
Prideaux, and we shall see all that has been advanced 
strongly confirmed. 

Let us begin with the term satan ? We have seen 
that this word signifies an adversary. That person or 
thing, is called a satan to another, which stands in his 
way, or in any shape opposes him. Thus, the angel 
of Jehovah, was a satan to Baalam, and the writing 
sent to Ahasuerus, was a satan to the Jews. Satan, 
in this account, is represented as opposed both to God 
and Job. He was their adversary or satan. Prideaux, 
in the above quotation, informs us, that Ahraman, the 
evil god, was opposed to the good God, and that this 
opposition would continue to the end of the world. 
He also informs us that the evil god was considered 

5* 



54 DEMONOLOGY, 

the author and director of all evil. This, is precise- 
ly the representation, which is given of satan in the 
book of Job. All Job's afflictions are supposed to 
be the doings of satan. Orthodox people contend, 
that this was the case, and that satan is their devil. 
They have then got only an evil heathen god, or the 
principle of evil deified, a mere nonenity, for a devil. 
But is this very honourable to Christianity ? And is it 
like persons, who reverence the word of God, flatly to 
contradict Job, in ascribing afflictions to satan which 
he ascribes to Jehovah ? Job contends, that the good 
God was the author of his afflictions, as well as his 
prosperity. Those who believed in the evil god, did 
not deny, but the good God was the author of his pros- 
perity, but would not admit him to be the author of 
his adversity. Job maintained that Jehovah was the 
author of both, blessing his name when he took away, 
as well as when he gave. By this the excellency of his 
eharacter was made manifest. 

But again ; in the above quotation from Prideaux, 
it is not alleged, that the good and evil gods always 
produced good and evil by their own immediate agen- 
cy, but that these were brought about by the instru- 
mentality of second causes. Though Job ascribes his 
prosperity and adversity to Jehovah, yet he, and all 
the scripture writers represent him, as accomplishing 
both by human means. Looking at the two first chap- 
ters of Job, the agents by which Job's afflictions were 
produced, are distinctly mentioned. For example, the 
Sabean and Chaldean freebooters carried away his 
flocks. Were not they then a satan to Job, in the 
common scripture usage of this term ? And does not 
their very manner of life, exactly agree to what satan 
says, chap. 1:7.? " And the Lord said unto satan, 
whence comest thou ?'' Well, what answer does he 
make ? He says, " from going to and fro in the earth, 
and froiA walking up and down in it." Just such an 



BEMONOLOGY 56 

answer as those freebooters would have given, for it 
was their mode of life to roam about committing such 
depredations. Yea, satan is the very name given to 
such persons in the East to this day. Messrs. Fisk 
and King, two of the Palestine missionaries, thus write : 
"For two hours, however, as we moved along our at- 
tendants were engaged in loud and violent disputes 
with these and other companies of Bedouins, who came 
up after they went away. They extorted a few dol- 
lars from the Armenians and Greeks, and at last took 
an ass from one of the Arabs; Our Shekh knew all 
these freebooters, and it is probably owing to his ac- 
quaintance with them, and his faithfulness to us, that 
they were so easily satisfied, and we met with so little 
trouble from them. He says, most of the Bedouins 
are much worse than these, and yet he called these sa- 
(ans (shaitan.") See Christian Spectator, vol. 7, p. 
222. Such is the account given us by two orthodox 
missionaries. If the writer of the book of Job, did 
not include the Sabean and Chaldean freebooters in 
the term satan, all will allow, that the ancient and 
present usage of this word in the East fully warranted 
him. We see then, that there was no need for the as- 
sistance of a fallen angel, to produce this part of Job's 
afflictions. The agent by which he lost his children, 
is as distinctly mentioned. We are told, chap. 1 : 18, 
19. " That a great wind from the wilderness, smote 
the four corners of the house, and it fell upon them 
and killed them." Such was the cause, which pro- 
duced this effect, nor do we perceive, that the aid of 
any evil being was required to accomplish it. We 
may just as well accuse satan of blowing down every 
house which is destroyed by a tornado. Job's sheep 
were killed by lightning, and it and the wind are agents 
in the natural world by which God accomplishes his 
pleasure, over which Ahraman, or the Christian's dev- 
il, have no control. 



56 DEMONOLOGY. 

Again ; looking at this account, and comparing it 
with the quotation from Prideaux, we see why Job's 
boils are expressly ascribed to satan, without any 
other agent being concerned in their production. All 
evil indiscriminately, was ascribed to the evil god or 
satan, as all good was to the good god. But, as there 
was no visible agent to which the boils could be as- 
cribed, no agent in this case is mentioned. Satan, or 
the evil god, has to father this affliction himself, with- 
out the assistance of any agent. Hence it is said, sa- 
tan smote Job with the boils, which is not said re- 
specting his other afflictions, though the whole aspect 
of the account, is in agreement with considering him 
the author and director of all evil. I shall only add, 
that it has always appeared strange, that in this ac- 
count, satan should be represented as conversing free- 
ly and familiarly with God. But if the account be as 
I have stated, the good and evil gods are here only re- 
presented as conversing together. It was in unison 
with the popular opinions concerning them. 

In concluding our remarks, let us briefly notice some 
points of similiarity in the Magian creed, to those of 
Christian creeds in the present day. 

The Persians then had one good being or god, and 
also one evil being. Or, as Prideaux observes, " that 
is to say God and the devil." Christians in this are 
perfectly agreed with them, for they believe in one 
God, and also one devil. Again ; the Persians be- 
lieved, that these two gods were the authors of all 
good and evil in the world. In this also Christians 
agree with them, for all good they ascribe to God, and 
impute all evil to satan, or the devil. Further ; the 
Persians made darkness the symbol of their evil god. 
So do Christians. When they speak of the devil he 
is described as black, dark, and hideous, and as lov- 
ing darkness, and dwelling in darkness, and keeping 
men in darkness, and will lead them at last into eter- 



DEMONOLOGY. 57 

nal darkness. Again ; the Persians believed that their 
good god was eternal. Some believed also, that their 
evil god was eternal. About this, there was a diversi- 
ty of opinion. So all Christians believe their good 
god to be eternal, but about the devil there is a differ- 
ence of opinion. Though none of them believe him 
to have been from all eternity, yet some of them be- 
lieve that he is to live for ever, and shall remain eter- 
nally the same wicked being. Others of them think 
that, after a long period of punishment, he will be 
either struck out of existence, or be redeemed and 
made eternally happy. But again, the Persians be- 
lieved, that there was a continual opposition between 
their good god and evil god, and that this should con- 
tinue to the end of the world. Then, the good god 
shall overcome the evil god, and thenceforward each 
of them shall have his world to himself, that is, the good 
god his world with all good men with him, and the evil 
god his world with all evil men with him. All Chris- 
tians contend, that there is a continual opposition be- 
tween their God and the devil, and that this opposi- 
tion shall continue to the end of the world. Then, 
God is to overcome the devil, and from that time 
thenceforward, God is to have his world and all good 
men with him, and the devil is to have his world, and 
all wicked men with him. Such are a few of the lead- 
ing points of similarity, between the ancient Magiaa 
faith and Christians in our day, respecting God, the 
devil, and future punishment. It is but proper and 
fair to notice 

2d. Some of the points of dissimilarity between 
them. The Magians then believed, that their good and 
evil gods were only " two principles." These princi- 
ples they not only personified, but deified and wor- 
shipped. When Xerxes prayed for evil on his ene- 
mies, " he addressed his prayer to Arimanius, the evil 
god, and not to Ormasdes, their good god." Chris- 



58 DEMONOLOGY. 

tians, believe their God and the devil, to be, not two 
principles, but two beings. Their devil is not only a 
being, but was once an angelic being, but for his sin 
and rebellion was cast out of heaven. Christians do 
not worship their devil. But alas, too many who pro- 
fess to be Christians, like Xerxes, when they wish evil 
on their enemies, pray to the devil. Christians have 
a great nnmber of names for their devil. But it is ap- 
parent, that whether such a being is called Ahraman, 
Arimanius, satan, or devil, the leading features of his 
character among all nations are the same. The evil 
god has become the Christians' devil. In fact they 
make their devil the worst being, for though it was 
believed that their evil god, should at the end of the 
world have a world to himself with all wicked men, 
yet it does not appear, that they believed he was to be 
the eternal tormentor of men. But it is well known, 
that this is a principal article in most orthodox creeds, 
and no man would be deemed orthodox, who denied 
it. I shall only add, that though the Persians and 
Christians agree in hating Ahraman or the devil, yet 
the latter have not carried their hatred so far as to 
write the devil's name inverted. In the next Section 
we shall see, that the Magian creed was much improv- 
ed by Zoroaster, and that Christians have not only 
adopted his sentiments, but the very language in which 
he expressed them. 



BEMONOLOGY. 59 



SECTION VI. 

Of witches anil witchci aft. — The Magian religion, as revived and 
reformed by Zoroaster, a supposed Jew. — Zoroaster's day of judg- 
ment. — Concluding remarks, 

[This section, and a portion of the former, are principally extracted 
from Balfour's Second Inquiry, a work which ought to be in every 
family.] The concluding remarks are by the editor. 

1st. In the early stages of the Jewish history, we 
read of witches and witchcraft. Injunctions are giv- 
en against these, before we hear any thing about satan 
or the devil. But notice, that nothing is said to them 
about witchcraft until they were about to enter Ca- 
naan. Many of the injunctions delivered to the Jew- 
ish nation, were for the purpose of fortifying them 
against such heathen notions, and preserving them in 
the fear and service of the one living and true God. 
See the following among other passages concerning 
this. Levit. 19: 26,31. 20: 6, 27. Deut. 18: 9, 
12. Exod. 22: 18. comp. Isai. 47: 12, 13. 1 Sam. 
chap. 28. The inhabitants of Canaan were given to 
idolatry, and- witchcraft with similar superstitions 
were its effects on the minds of the people. But such 
a being as Christians call the devil, was neither wor- 
shipped, feared, nor known among them. They had 
abundance of idols, but no devil or satan, nor are the 
Jews cautioned to beware of imbibing from them such 
an opinion. It is then a very great mistake, which 
many good people have made, in calling witchcraft 
the devil's art, and in thinking witches and wizzards 
were in league with him. Concerning this, Michaelis, 
on the laws of Moses, thus writes, vol. iv. page 89. 
" We must however entertain very different sentiments 
on this point, in reference to the time of Moses. For 
in the Biblical writings prior to the Babylonish cap- 
tivity, we meet with very little notice of the devil, 



60 DEMONOLOGY. 

and it would seem, that the effects which he could 
produce on the material world, were considered as 
but very trifling. The wizzards of those days rather 
ascribed the efficacy of their conjurations to other 
gods *, and therefore, in the Israelitish polity, witch- 
craft was commonly accounted a species of idolatry, 
and of course, most severely punishable. Hence or- 
thodox theology, in the time of Moses, could look 
upon it in no other light, than an imposture : for no 
one could maintain, that it operated preternaturally, 
without admitting the existence of other gods, and 
their power over the material world." — The Jews, 
before they entered Canaan, knew nothing about the 
devil. Nor did its idolatrous inhabitants, for he was 
not known in that part of the world. If then, as now, 
he walked about seeking whom he might devour, it is 
very unaccountable he should not be familiarly known 
in Canaan, a land full of idols, and witches, and all 
manner of wickedness. It seems all these could exist 
in those days without any devil to produce them. — 
Nor is Moses, or rather God, under any apprehension, 
that he would visit that country. We shall see that 
the Jews were obliged to go to a foreign land to find 
the devil. 

2d. The Jews were carried to Babylon, and spent 
seventy years in captivity. Here, the Magian reli- 
gion, revived and improved by Zoroaster, prevailed, 
and here we shall find that they became acquainted 
with the doctrine of the devil, and with other religious 
opinions not found in their Scriptures. To this point 
I shall now turn the attention of the reader. Pri- 
deaux, vol. i. p. 219 — 240. gives us an account of 
Zoroaster, his religion, and its success, a few brief 
extracts from which I shall only make. He says : — 
" In the time of his (Darius Hystaspis) reign first ap- 
peared in Persia the famous prophet of the Magians, 
whom the Persians call Zerdusht, or Zaratush. and 
the Greeks, Zoroaster. 



BEMONOLOGY* Gt 

" He was the greatest impostor, except Mahomet, 
that ever appeared in the world, and had all the craft 
and enterprising boldness of that Arab, but much 
more knowledge ; for he was excellently skilled in all 
the learning of the East that was in his time ; whereas 
the other could neither write nor read ; and particu- 
larly he was thoroughly versed in the Jewish religion, 
and in all the sacred writings of the Old Testament 
that were then extant, which makes it most likely, 
that he was, as to his origin, a Jew. And it is gene- 
rally said of him, that he had been a servant to one 
of the prophets of Israel, and that it was by this 
means that he came to be so well skilled in the holy 
scriptures, and all other Jewish knowledge ; which is 
a farther proof, that he was of that people ; it not 
being likely, that a prophet of Israel should entertain 
him as a servant, or instruct him as a disciple, if he 
were not of the same seed of Israel, as well as of the 
same religion with him ; and that especially since it 
was the usage of that people, by principle of religion, 
as well as by long received custom among them, to 
separate themselves from all other nations, as far as 
they were able. And it is farther to be taken notice 
of, that most of those who speak of his original, say, 
that he was of Palestine, within which country the 
land of J udea was. And all this put together, amounts 
with me to a convincing proof, that he" was first a Jew, 
and that by birth, as well as religion, before he took 
upon him to be prophet of the Magian sect. 

" He did not found a new religion, as his successor 
in imposture Mahomet did, but only took upon him to 
revive and reform an old one, that of the Magians, 
which had been for many ages past, the ancient na- 
tional religion of the Medes, as well as of the Per- 
sians : for it having fallen under disgrace on the death 
of those ringleaders of that sect, who had usurped 
the sovereignty after the death of Cambyses, and the 

6 



62 DEMONOLOGY. 

slaughter which was then made of all the chief men 
among them, it sunk so low, that it became almost ex- 
tinct, and Sabianism every where prevailed against 
it, Darius and most of his followers on that occasion 
going over to it. But the affection which the people 
had for the religion of their forefathers, and which 
they had all been brought up in, not being easily to 
be rooted out, Zoroaster saw, that the revival of this 
was the best game of imposture that he could then 
play ; and, having so good an old stock to graft upon, 
he did with the greater ease make all his new scions 
to grow, which he inserted into it. 

" The chief reformation which he made in the Ma- 
gian religion was in the first principle of it : for where- 
as before they had held the being of two first causes, 
the first light, or the good god, who was the author of 
all good ; and the other darkness, or the evil god, who 
was the author of all evil ; and that of the mixture 
of these two, as they were in a continual struggle 
with each other, all things were made ; he introduced 
a principle superior to them both, one supreme, God, 
who created light and darkness, and out of these two, 
according to the alone pleasure of his own will, made 
all things else that are, according to what is said in 
the 45th chapter of Isaiah, 5, 6, 7. " 1 am the Lord, 
and there is none else : there is no God besides me ; 
I girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that, 
they may know from the rising of the sun, and from 
the west, that there is none besides me. I am the 
Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and 
create darkness, I make peace and create evil, I the 
Lord do all these things.' ' For these words being 
directed to Cyrus, king of Persia, must be understood 
as spoken in reference to the Persian sect of the Ma- 
gians, who then held light and darkness, or good and 
evil, to be the supreme beings, without acknowledging 
the great God who is superior to both. And I doubt 



DEMONOLOGY. 63 

not it was from hence that Zoroaster had the hint of 
mending this great absurdity in their theology. But 
to avoid making God the author of evil, his doctrine 
was, that God originally and directly created only 
right or good, and that darkness or evil followed it by 
consequence, as the shadow doth the person ; that 
light or good had only a real production from God, and 
the other afterwards resulted from it, as the defect 
thereof. In sum, his doctrine as to this particular was. 
that there was one supreme Being, independent and 
self-existing from all eternity. That under him there 
were two angels, one the angel of light, who is the au- 
thor and director of all good; and the other the an- 
gel of darknesss, who is the author and director of 
all evil ; and that these two, out of the mixture of 
light and darkness, made all things that are ; that 
they are in a perpetual struggle with each other ; and 
that where the angel of light prevails, there the most 
is good, and where the angel of darkness prevails, 
there the most is evil ; that this struggle shall continue 
to the end of the world ; that then there shall be a gen- 
eral reserrection, and a day of judgment, wherein 
just retribution shall be rendered to all according to 
their works ; after which the angel of darkness, and 
his disciples, shall go into a world of their own, where 
they shall suffer in everlasting darkness the punish- 
ments of their evil deeds : and the angel of light, and 
his disciples, shall also go into a world of their own, 
where they shall receive in everlasting light, the re- 
ward due unto their good deeds ; and that after this 
they shall remain separated for ever, and light and 
darkness be no more mixed together to all eternity. — 
And all this the remainder of that sect, which is now 
in Persia and India, do without any variation, after so 
many ages, still hold even to this day." 

Let us now consider, what Zoroaster says shall 
take place at the end of the world, and compare it 



64 DEMONOLOGY. 

with the creeds of most Christians. He says--*" then 
there shall be a general resurrection." This article 
Zoroaster no doubt learned from his acquaintance 
with the Jewish Scriptures, for the resurrection from 
the dead, was the ultimate hope of believers in Christ, 
who was promised to the fathers. At this resurrec- 
tion, he says there shall be u a day of judgment" — 
This, Zoroaster could not learn from the Old Testa- 
ment, for it does not teach such a doctrine, and when 
he made his creed, the New was not in existence. The 
phrase u day of judgment,'" used by him, is that now 
used by Christians, and in the same sense as he used 
it. In my answer to Mr. Sabine, I examined every 
text in which this phrase is found, and showed, that it 
is not once used in the Bible, in the sense which Zoro- 
aster and Christians have attached to it. To it I bee; 
leave to refer the reader, who inclines to examine this 
subject. Christians must have borrowed the sense 
they attach to the phrase " day of judgment 1 ' from 
his creed, for he could not borrow it from theirs, as the 
chronology of the cases show. But let us hear Zo- 
roaster, about what shall take place at the day of judg- 
ment? He says — "just retribution shall be rendered 
to all according to their works." It cannot be denied., 
that this is the very sentiment and language of Chris- 
tian creeds. Bat I ask, how Zoroaster could learn ei- 
ther this sentiment or its phraseology from the Old 
Testament? If he did, intelligent and orthodox men 
have erred greatly in admitting that this doctrine is 
not taught at all, or at least very doubtful in the Old 
Testament. Jahn, in his Archaeology, thus writes, 
p. 398.—" We have not authority, therefore, decided- 
ly to say, that any other motives were held out to the 
ancient Hebrews to pursue the good and avoid the 
evil, than those, which were derived from the rewards 
and punishments of this life. That these were the 
motives which were presented to their minds in order 



DEMONOLOGY. 6fe 

to influence them to pursue a right course of conduct* 
is expressly asserted, Isai. 26 : 9, 10. and may be 
learnt also from the imprecations, which are met with, 
in many parts of the Old Testament. 

Every orthodox man must believe that the devil 
with his disciples, or all wicked men, are to suffer in a 
world of their own "in everlasting darkness the pun- 
ishment of their evil deeds," and that "the angel of 
light, and his disciples, shall also go into a world of 
their own, where they shall receive in everlasting light 
the reward due unto their good deeds : and that after 
this they shall remain separated for ever, and light and 
darkness be no more mixed together to all eternity." 
What man would be deemed orthodox, who refused 
to believe these things ? And why not allow, that 
Zoroaster, the greatest impostor that ever arose, Ma- 
homet excepted, was in these things as orthodox as 
they are ? In these things he was orthodox long before 
them. There is only one of the above articles about 
which they differ from him in opinion. To the hon- 
our of our orthodox brethren be it spoken, they do 
not say, that the disciples of the angel of light receive 
future blessedness as a reward for good deeds done by 
them here. No, they say, it is not of works but of 
grace, lest any man should boast. It is true, the 
grace whereby they save men, is rather a purchased 
grace, than free grace, but on this we forbear re- 
marking. 

But it is added by Prideaux — " and all this the re- 
mainder of that sect which is now in Persia and India, 
do without any variation, after so many ages still hold 
even to this day." If they hold all the above articles, 
" without any variation to this day," and if they are 
all true, as Dean Prideaux asserts, why be at so much 
trouble and expense to send them missionaries ? The 
chief articles in modern Christian creeds were propa- 
gated there many ages before the Christian religion 
6* 



66 DEMONOLOGY. 

existed. If these tenets were taken from the New 
Testament, "it is certain Zoroaster taught them long 
before, and Jesus Christ and his apostles had not the 
honour of revealing such articles of faith to the world. 
For example, " they believe in one Supreme God, 
and in Jesus Christ under the name of 4 an angel of 
light." They believe also in the Christian's devil, un- 
der the name of 4 an angel of darkness.' They be- 
lieve in the opposition of these two to each other, and 
which is to continue to the end of the world. They 
further believe in a resurrection of all the dead, a 
day of judgment and future retribution. And they 
believe in the everlasting happiness of all the good, 
and everlasting punishment of all the wicked." Pray, 
what more do orthodox people wish them to believe, 
to be as orthodox as themselves ? What more could 
missionaries teach them, to perfect their Christian 
creed, which they received from Zoroaster ? It is 
true, there are some articles in the Christian creeds 
of which they must be ignorant as they were not taught 
by Zoroaster. It does not appear that he knew any 
thing about hell-fire, as the place of everlasting pun- 
ishment for his angel of darkness and his disciples. 
Nor had he learned that his angel of darkness was to 
be the everlasting tormentor of the wicked in this 
place. He was also ignorant that hell was paved with 
the skulls of infants a span long. His creed does not 
recognize, neither, that it is necessary for people to be 
willing to be damned for the glory of God, in order to 
their being saved. As to his making God the author 
of evil or sin, he framed his system so as to avoid this 
absurdity. Being damned for Adam's transgression, 
divine retribution, three persons in one God, and other 
articles of modern theological discussion, Zoroaster 
seems to have known no more about, than about cap- 
tain Symmes' theory of the earth. It deserves the 
serious consideration of the whole orthodox body, 



DEMONOLOGY. 67 

whether missionaries ought not to come from Persia 
and India here, to examine into the innovations and 
additions made in the creed of their founder, the great 
Zoroaster. 



concluding- remarks. 

We have now seen that the personality of the dev- 
il, and other tenets of the Magian religion are not 
taught in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. That 
Zoroaster did not learn them from this source is evi- 
dent, by the fact that the orthodox, who still hold the 
same tenets, cannot find them there. That Zoroaster 
did not obtain them from the New Testament, is set- 
tled by the fact, that it was not written within 600 
years of the time in which he flourished. Were they 
given to him by special revelation from God ? No 
one will affirm this, for he is allowed to be a great im- 
poster. Are they then of his invention, and did Jesus 
Christ and his apostles sanction these sentiments by 
adopting them ? If they did, why do we still call him 
an impostor who introduced them, while Jesus is term- 
ed the high priest of our profession ? As it is admit- 
ted by those who are best able to judge in these mat- 
ters, that the writings of the Old Testament do not 
contain these sentiments, to what shall we attribute 
them ? Shall we say that Jesus Christ and his apos- 
tles taught them by direction of God ? If so, why was 
not Zoroaster, who taught the same six hundred years 
prior to the Christian dispensation, a true prophet ? 
if the prophets of the Lord advocated these tenets, let 
us have chapter and verse for it. If not, and they are 
a part of the Christian system, then Zoroaster, and 
not Christ, is their promulgator. Christ, then, mere- 
ly revived the Magian religion, as improved by that 



63 DEMONOLOGY. 

arch impostor, and the moderns who hold these senti- 
ments, are indebted to the greatest impostor that ev- 
er lived, excepting Mahomet, for the articles of the 
orthodox creed, and not to Christ. But will our ortho- 
dox friends allow this ? And yet how will they avoid 
it ? If Zoroaster did teach these tenets, and if the 
prophets in the Old Testament did not teach them, 
while they are considered as parts of the Christian 
theology, then are we indebted to Zoroaster, and not 
to those who came after him, for the sentiments which 
they merely revived. 

" Let it now be remembered, that while the Jews 
dwelt in Canaan they knew nothing about the devil. 
If they did it was merely by report, that the Persians 
and other nations believed in such a being. They had 
precepts, guarding them against witchcraft, idolatry, 
and all the abominations of the Canaanites, but not 
one guarding them against that almost infinite being 
whom Christians call the devil. How our orthodox 
brethren account for this I am unable to say. On my 
views, it is easily and rationally accounted for. The 
devil was the principle of evil deified, transformed by 
Zoroaster into an angel of darkness, and the Jews 
go to Babylon to get acquainted with him. That the 
Jews spent seventy years in captivity there, is a fact 
disputed by no one." 

How likely the Jews were to imbibe the principles 
of the Babylonians during their captivity of seventy 
years, is not very problematical. The time of their 
captivity, was while the Magian religion was in its 
zenith. They were always prone to go a whoring af- 
ter strange gods, whom their fathers knew not. The 
manner of their captivity led in a great measure to this 
result, for they were scattered through that immense 
territory. Zoroaster's religion recognized one God, 
and so did theirs. The religion of Zoroaster was 
popular, and they had many inducements to embrace" 



DEMONOLOGY. 69 

it. A great similitude existed between the two reli- 
gions in respect to idols, which were discountenanced 
by both ; and this makes it very probable, that Zo- 
roaster was indeed a Jew, as has already been hinted. 

As we have now seen that the similarity between 
the principles of Zoroaster and those professed at the 
present time by men who claim to be Christians, is 
very striking, why are not the moderns as properly 
called Mehestani, as were the followers of Zoroaster, 
and not after Christ, the mere servant of Zoroaster. 
Jf, as a master, Zoroaster taught what are now called 
the principles of the Christian religion, we see no pro- 
priety in naming men after him who merely kept in 
countenance doctrines which had been taught for half 
a dozen centuries. 

That the Jews did embrace the religion of the Per- 
sians, viz. the worship of the sun, is evident from 
Ezck. 8 ; where the prophet saw in vision certain men 
" standing between the porch and the altar, with their 
backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces 
towards the east ; and they worshipped the sun," 

But this is not the only source whence they derived 
superstitious ideas. The Grecian philosophy of the 
pre-existence and transmigration of souls, had evident- 
ly made some considerable advances, as may be seen 
in John 9 : 2. " And his disciples asked him, saying, 
Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he 
was BORtf blind?" The disciples, or others who 
could ask such a question, must be deeply imbued with 
the Pythagorian philosophy of metempsychosis. On 
no other principle can we account for a question 
which seems to set common sense at defiance. 

The highly figurative language of the Orientals, has 
led the more prosing moderns to regard the figures 
used, as facts, and the frequency of prosopepeia, as 
proof of real existences. But is any thing we read of 
AiafoXos of the New Testament, or the ttarwas oi 



70 DEMONOLOGY. 

either the Old or New, more clearly applied to per- 
sonal existences, than the personification of demons, 
or wisdom, or death ? Wisdom is represented as 
speaking, as sitting, as acting, and yet every one may 
know by the context, that this is but a personification 
of an attribute. Very superficial people have indeed 
mistaken this personification in certain 'instances, but 
their mistakes are not binding on us. Death, wheth- 
er moral or natural, cannot be a real existence, a per- 
son having identity, and of course consciousness ; and 
yet it is personified as riding, as having a sling, and as 
being destroyed by a victorious conqueror. An apos- 
tle represents death as a king, reigning in majesty, from 
Adam to Moses, and the prophet represents God as 
saying, O death I will be thy plagues. But who be- 
lieves death to be a real entity ? But why should we 
not with as much propriety believe this, as to credit 
the personality of the cause of diseases, which, being 
more than a match for the skill of physicians in those 
days, was imputed to the influence of demons, or the 
spirits of departed men ? Missionaries in those eas- 
tern countries represent people as now using incan- 
tations over those diseased as were the demoniacs of 
old, and it is evident that the same belief still contin- 
ues. Yet, in this country, a person who should im- 
pute epilepsy to a devil, or the devil, considered as the 
spirit of a deified dead man, or an infernal agent, would 
be " laughed to scorn,' ■ even in this devil-believing 
age. 

But we need look no further back than to the fathers 
of New England for the mania of believing in witches 
and witchcraft, and real possessions by infernal spirits. 
The chronicles of those times exhibit a delusion in 
this respeet, almost unaccountable. So strong was 
the predilection for these vagaries, that the colony of 
Massachusetts was in a fair way to be depopulated. 
The minister in his desk, and the judge on the bench, 



DEMONOLOGY. 71 

were liable to accusation, and accusation amounted to 
proof. Judicial proceedings were trammeled by the 
fetters of superstition, and nothing but a prospect of 
annihilating the settlement, seemed to awaken them to 
a just sense of their situation. No man's liberty, or 
even life, was safe from this monster of fanaticism. 
Every injury, every insult, or supposed one, and every 
hatred without a cause existing in the person hated, 
was sufficient to drag the imputed to prison and to 
death. But who now, does not look back on these 
ridiculous and horrible phantasies, as the effect of de- 
luded minds, and who is not ashamed to 

" — Own our fathers have been fools so long ?** 
The translation of the terms <5>a§oXos, 6a^ov, 5a/juiov« 
;ov, and tfarava, by the word devil, has not a lit- 
tle confounded the ideas of our ancestors, and indeed 
of our contemporaries. Having generally very imper- 
fect ideas of the distinction in language by the mis- 
translation, and not caring to venture a search into what 
a most critical scholar, (Dr. Campbell,) has called an 
endless subject, they have suffered themselves to be 
carried along the popular current, and rested content- 
ed with the vulgar error, vox populi, vox Dei ; or, 
the voice of the populace is the voice of God. 
- That this has been the case, is obvious from the fol- 
lowing facts ; 

1 . The origin of the Devil, as commonly believed, is 
too preposterous an idea to bear one hour's investi- 
gation. He is represented in the common opinion, as 
having been an angel of light, of great knowledge and 
consequent power. That in the presence of God, 
where the scriptures represent joy and blessedness as 
perennial, he sinned. Pride is supposed to be his sin. 
On what his pride was founded, his biographers have 
not seen fit to inform us. How sin entered into a 
place of divine beatitude, we can no more imagine, 
than we can take a security that myriads of beatified 



72 DEMONOLOGY. 

spirits of angels and men, shall not, at some future 
time, turn hell over into a pandemonium, and dethrone 
the Almighty. If sin could enter the mind of one dwel- 
ling in uncreated light, and perfectly pure from the 
lusts of the flesh, why may not those who have sojourn- 
ed here as tenants in common in the school of vanity, 
return like the dog to his vomit, and like the swine that 
had been washed to his wallowing in the mire. Or- 
thodoxy represents our very nature as polluted, and 
what warrants have we, that a recurrence of these 
evil propensities shall not at some future time visit us 
with power a thousandfold accumulated, and miseries 
a thousand fold aggravated ? None at all. All the 
future, on this supposition* is a blank, and those who 
harbour despair, do it with their eyes open to all these 
horrid, but legitimate deductions. 

2. The unity, or oneness of the devil, grants him om- 
niscience, and omnipresence, two attributes of Jehovah. 
Thus the power of ubiquity is granted him at once, and 
he is supposed to be the spirit which now worketh in 
the children of disobedience, throughout the habitable 
world, and in the accumulated millions of those who 
have departed this state of existence. For, admitting 
that men sin without " being thereto instigated by the 
devil,'' and we iind no occasion for his existence. 
But if a personal devil is necessary to the existence of 
sin, and sin and suffering are to exist and accumulate 
ad infinitum, the ubiquity of the devil is as necessary 
to the works of misery, as is any given cause to pro- 
duce a specified effect. Hence the unity of the devil 
renders him equal in two respects, to Jehovah. 

3. His existence is supposed to run parallel with Je- 
hovah? s. If one is in scripture represented as alone 
possessing immortality, the common opinion is made 
to clash with the declaration. It is of little account 
that we read, Heb. 2: 14, and 1 John 3 : 8, of his 
destruction, ^ind that of his works. The vox populi is 






DEMONOLOGY. 73 

a ready evidence to the contrary fact, and obtains an 
implicit credence. 

4. The devil is supposed to have tempted our first 
parents. Let this be once taken for granted, and all 
the remaining abominations follow in its train. Let 
this be disproved, and they all vanish. But are we 
required to prove the negative 1 If we are not, it 
may be done, and it shall be done. " By one man sin 
entered into the world." Paul is our author — Now 
prove by any other passage that sin entered by means 
of a personal devil, with as much clearness as this proves 
that man is the author of sin, and the Bible is neutral- 
ized ; for that which is equally an 1 ^ 1 ' able in proof of 
two opposites, is not testimor uer case. Thus 

then, a negative is proved, t uie scriptures cannot 
prove any thing relative to the subject — Need we seek 
any further for the origin of evil ? 

If then we find a personal, omniscient, omnipresent 
devil, was not originally wanted to deceive, and lead 
into sin, our first parents, what motive can call for his 
assistance at the present day 1 We think the exam- 
ples set before the infants of our race more than suffi- 
cient to produce the effects imputed to the devil. If 
we are made subject to vanity, as the scriptures abun- 
dantly testify, no supernataral agency can be requisite 
to effect our moral degradation. But let us be thank- 
ful, that though we are thus subjected, it is through 
the wisdom of him who hath thus subjected us in the 
glorious hope, that the creature — the whole creation 
of God, shall yet be delivered from this bondage of 
corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of 
God — Amen, 7 



74 DEMONOLOGY. 

SUPPLEMENT. 

Since writing the above, the editor has read " the 
National Preacher, No. 9." containing two discourses, 
from Heb. 10 : 12. As the book of Job is allowed to 
contain the doctrine of a personal devil with as much 
clearness as any other in the whole scriptures, we 
should be thankful to the person who will show us in 
what respect Dr. Matthews is wrong in the following 
paragraph. If a personal devil had nothing to do with 
the matter, by what testimony shall we be satisfied that 
such a personality exists ? 

" You are to view and receive afflictions as coming 
from the hand of God ; — as sent by Him whose king- 
dom ruleth over all. You have only to open your Bi- 
ble, and this truth will meet your eye in almost every 
page. All those diseases to which you are liable, are 
most explicitly ascribed to divine agency. When na- 
tions, or individuals were to be chastised, the pesti- 
lence is called for, and its course is directed, until His 
purpose, who administers the correction, is fully ac- 
complished. It is stated in Scripture, that all the dis- 
eases of Egypt, also every sickness and every plague, 
though not mentioned in the book of the law, are sent 
and controlled by the hand of God. " 1 know, says 
the pious and afflicted Job, that thou wilt bring me to 
death. He killeth and he maketh alive." All other 
calamities with which you can possibly be afflicted are 
also his messengers. If the devouring flame consumes 
your property ; if the tempest or hurricane visits you 
with desolation ; this fire and this stormy wind are but 
his servants, fulfilling his pleasure." 



sjibieh ob 1 ffj&wnr. 



Hook Sctontr. 



Being the Substance of a Lecture on Hosea 12 : 14. By Rev. J. S, 
Thompson. 

O Hell, I will be thy destruction. 
SECTION Z. 

Examination of the Hebrew words Sheol and Gehenna ; and of 
the Greek word Hades, and the pagan Tartarus. 

Christian auditors : You may ask me, wherefore 
have you changed the common reading of the text, and 
used the term Hell, instead of the grave ? I reply, 
every person acquainted with the original languages, 
in which it hath pleased God to communicate to man 
the sacred intelligence of life and immortality, will 
readily admit, that the Hebrew word, translated grave, 
in the common version of the Text, is that very same 
term, which is translated Hell wherever the word oc- 
curs in the Old Testament. I am therefore justified 
in reading my Text as I have done in your hearing ; 
and the good sense of the passage, as well as the fulfil- 
ment of the prophecy, require this change in the mode 
of reading. But seeing the word Hell occurs in the 
sacred scriptures as the translation of three different 
words, Sheol, Gehenna, and Hades, I shall endeav- 
our, 

1st. To give an explanatory history of these terms. 



76 HELLOLOGY. 

2d. To disprove the doctrine generally deduced 
from them. 

My hearers will be surprised by the declaration, that 
not one of the original words, which our translators 
have rendered HJl, conveys the idea of a place or 
state of punishment in another mode of existence ; 
and consequently their just indignation will be excited 
against that deceptious system of duplicity, which has 
so long abused mankind by the misuse of terms, and 
perversion of reason and religion. The word Hell, in 
its modern acceptation, excites in the mind a very dif- 
erent idea from that which the term formerly express- 
ed. To our notions of it the words of the Latin 
poet apply. 

" Tempora mutantur, et nos mtttamur ah illis,^ 

The word has lost its primitive signification, which, 
like the original words of which it is the translation in 
our Bibles, was perfectly innocent, and has acquired 
the modern and hideous idea of a place appropriated 
to the execution of interminable punishment. The 
word Hell, therefore, by the consent of the ablest com- 
mentators of all denominations, should be expunged 
from our Bibles ; and no longer used as the translation 
of the Greek or Hebrew terms ; for there is, confessed- 
ly, no word in the original scriptures to exp? % ess the 
modern idea of Hell ! The word, says Dr. A. Clarke, 
is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Helan, which signi- 
fies to cover, conceal, or hide ; and hence the tilings or 
covering of a house, and the covers of books are to 
this day called Heling, and the phrase to hell is still 
used as synonymous with to cover or hide, in several 
of the western counties of England, especially, Corn- 
wall and Lancaster. Thus the true and primitive 
meaning of the word hell, was perfectly accordant with 
the idea suggested by the Hebrew sheol, and the Greek 
Hades ; for as nouns, all the three words imply some- 
thing unseen, concealed, or invisible ; and have there- 



HELLOLOGY. 77 

fore been employed with propriety to convey the no- 
tion of an unseen world, the grave, or state of the dead 
in general. Similar are the sentiments of the learned 
Archbishop Usher, expressed in his Treatise de Lim. 
Patr. — " We have no word in the French or English 
language to express the idea conveyed by the Hebrew 
sheol, the Greek hades, or the Latin inferni. Our Eng- 
lish word hell had anciently this meaning; being de- 
rived from the German hill, to hide. Hence the an- 
cient Irish used to say 4 hill the head? meaning to cov- 
er the head. So that our hell then answered to the 
Greek hades, which signifies an unseen place. " Drs. 
S. and A. Clarke, Campbell, Whitby, and others, ap- 
probate the above definition of hell, and harmonious- 
ly unite in opinion, that hell originally answered to the 
Greek and Hebrew terms, but ought not to be used 
m the modern sense, as the translation of sheol or 
hades. 

How strange then, that from the term hell, should 
have arisen those dreadful notions, which are so as- 
siduously progagated in the world, and which men of 
fruitful imaginations have so effectually made to ope- 
rate as the means of delusion and aggrandizement. It 
is not however surprising, that superstition should act 
most powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since the 
human fancy can paint with greater energy the misery 
than the bliss of a future state. — With the two simple 
ideas of darkness and fire, we can create a sensation of 
pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree, 
by adding the idea of endless duration. Hence from 
the greater facility of depicting the horrors which dis- 
tract the mind or ruin the peace of society r hell, which 
contained just as much happiness as misery, in its idea, 
came to be used by religious impostors of every de- 
scription, as a fit engine to awe the mind of the credu- 
lous into that pliability, necessary to favour the views 
of the avaricious priest or tyrannical monarch. Egypt, 

7* 



78 HELLOLOGY. 

the mother of gods, superstition, and mystery, gave 
origin to the whole doctrine of Hell ; if we lop off the 
exuberances of infuriated orthodoxy, during the dark 
ages of papal delusion. These happy plains, says 
Diodorus, extending from the Nile to the Pyramids, 
where once stood the famous Memphis, reported to be 
the abode of the just after death, are no other than 
the beautiful country in the vicinity of the lake 
Acherusia, near Memphis. It is not without founda- 
tion, that the dead have been said to reside here ; lor 
here terminate the funeral ceremonies of most of the 
Egyptians. Their bodies, having been conveyed 
across the Nile and the lake Acherusia, are finally de- 
posited in tombs constructed under the surface of 
these plains. The ceremonies yet practised in Egypt 
correspond with all the notions of the Greeks, con- 
cerning the infernal regions. 

SHEOL. 
This word, which is translated Hell in the scriptures 
of the Old Testament, signifies only the state of the 
dead indiscriminately. Thus Ps. 89 : 47, according 
to the translation of the common prayer, reads, what 
man is he that liveth, and shall not see death ; and 
shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hell ? What 
Solomon says, (Prov. 27 : 20,) hell and destruction 
are never full, is perfectly explained by chap. 30 : 1 5, 
there be three things which are never satisfied— Sheol 
or Hell, etc. 

The Hebrew word, sheol, is derived from shoal, to 
ask, pray, or hide. Kennicot, who compared the Bi- 
ble with above 1000 Mss. and thus became a practical 
Hebrician, affirms that the radical meaning of shual, 
is to ask or pray. In this sense our translators under- 
stood it, Gen. 32 : 29. Dcut. 4 : 32, and 37 : 7. Josh. 
4: 6, Jud. 18: 5, etc. The Septuagint renders it 
aitesan, in Ex. 3 : 22, and every impartial inquirer 
will be satisfied by consulting Pool's Annotation or 



HELLOLOGY. 79 

the passage, Whitby on Acts, 2 : 27, Kennicot's first 
dissertation, p. 390, and Shuckford's Connexions, vol. 
2, p. 340. 

The learned Buxtorf defines sheol, the "general 
place of the dead;' 1 and another very competent judge 
and excellent Commentator, Dr. Whitby, says, accor- 
ding to the scriptures, the Jewish writers, the ancient 
Fathers and the still more ancient heathen, the He- 
brew Sheol, and the Greek Hades, which answers to 
it in the translation of the Seventy, signifies the place 
of reception of all the dead. In this sense alone 
can we understand the sacred writers. — In the first 
place where the word sheol as a noun occurs, Gen. 37: 
35, we find the pious Patriarch, saying, " / will go 
down into Sheol, to my son mourning.^ How absurd 
to suppose that Jacob believed his beloved son to be 
in a place of torment ! And how desperately wicked 
the language both of the holy Jacob and the patient 
Job, if we attach to the word Hell the modern mean- 
ing. The former exclaims, " / shall go to Hell" and 
the latter prays, " Oh that thou wouldst hide me in Hell 
till thy wrath be past .'" Job 14:13. In the views of 
our modern evangelical preachers, Hell is the very 
focus of the Divine wrath, yet Job prays to be hid in 
it, in order to escape that wrath ! O how confounded 
is the language of Babel ! Our modern Babel-builders 
have long pretended to speak a holy, ancient, and Bib- 
lical language, but God Almighty, in respect for the 
truth, has manifested their character by the confusion 
of tongues. 

It is proper here to notify my readers, that in the 
Old Testament, the word Sheol, does not mean the 
place of separate spirits ; for the writers of the Jewish 
scriptures had no knowledge of a future mode of exist- 
ence. They neither feared nor hoped for any thing 
beyond the grave ! Sheol therefore only implies the 
state of the dead, or that chaos of noncnity that was 



SO HELLOLOGY. 

supposed to follow dissolution. Neither friend nor 
foe, learned nor unlearned can put his finger on a sin- 
gle passage in the Old Testament and say, here is in- 
formation, that man shall live again. Had the sacred 
writers ever thought that Sheol meant the abode of 
spirits, or had they believed in a separate state, they 
would not have declared, " there is no device, nor 
knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol. Eccl. 9 : 10. In 
death there is no remembrance of God, and none shall 
give him thanks in Sheol, Ps. 6 : 6. Sheol cannot 
praise God, Is, 38: 18. And that the dead know 
not any thing, Eccl. 9:5. A man hath no pre-em- 
inence above a beast : for all go into one place ; all 
are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Eccl. 3 : 
19, 20. As the waters fail from the sea, and the 
flood drieth up, so man lieth down and riseth not ! Job 
14: 12. 

We have shown that sheol, as a verb, signifies to ask 
or inquire ; as a noun it conveys the idea of asking, or 
inquiry, and denotes that solicitous desire of man to 
know his fate or destiny after death. Hence we see 
that it differs radically from the hades of the Greeks, 
or the Hell of the moderns. Sheol, or Saul, was also 
a common appellative name in Israel. Their first king 
was so called, as also the great apostle of the Gentiles ; 
but surely none would have been so wild as to have 
called their dear children by the name of sheol, or hell, 
had they conceived it to mean the accursed region of 
the damned ! We therefore fairly and rationally con- 
clude, from a full investigation of the passages, that 
the sheol or hell of the Old Testament denoted inqui- 
ry, a request, or figuratively, the invisible world, great 
solicitude, anxiety, or trouble : and any person accus- 
tomed to etymological investigation, will readily per- 
ceive how easily and naturally the figurative sense 
arises from the literal. In the figurative sense we un- 
derstand it, Ps. 9 : 17 ; 30 : 3 ; 86 : 18 ; 116: 3 ; and 



HELLOLOGY. 81 

similar passages. In some of the old English versions, 
the seventeenth verse of the ninth Psalm is thus ren- 
dered, " the wicked go hito liell^ — i. e. into anxiety 
and trouble. This 'translation is perfectly harmonious 
with the revelation of God, and the experience of 
man. There is no peace, saith pay God to the wick- 
ed ; they are like the troubled sea; Is. 51 : 20, 21 ; 
into this hell Jonah went, when he endeavoured to flee 
from the Lord. The pains of this hell took hold of 
David when he went into it, by the commission of 
those crimes, which tarnish his character, and blacken 
his memorial to all generations. O sinner, thou canst 
only keep out of this hell, by doing justly, loving mer- 
cy, and walking humbly with thy God. 

But my audience may demand what is implied in 
the text, O sheol,I will be thy destruction. I answer, 
the Lord God will swallow up death in victory ; and 
wipe away tears from all faces. Is. 25 : 8. God will 
dwell with men, and they shall be his people, and he 
will be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain. Rev. 21 : 3, 4. The Hell of the Bible 
is that anxiety and trouble which are the effects of sin ; 
and follow as a consequence that vanity to which the 
creature is subject. Rom. 8 : 20. But the creature 
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God, at the res- 
titution, regeneration, or new creation of all things. 
The transgression shall be finished, sin terminate, death 
and hell be cast into the lake of fire to be destroyed; 
and evil be abolished from the empire of God ! 
HADES. 

Hades from «, not, and eido, to see — signifies unseen, 
invisible ; the invisible reception or mansion of the 
dead, where all departed spirits are supposed to reside, 
without any distinction whatever, — In the scriptures, 



82 HELLOLOGY. 

it is often personified as a king of terrors, or destin- 
ing monster, having his basileion, or kingdom. — Wisd. 
1 : 14. This is implied in the phrase, heos hadou, or 
doma hadou. Genesis 37 : 35. Num.15: 80. Is. 14: 
11. Math. 11: 23. His puldi, or gates. Is. 38 : 10. 
Math. 16 : 18. His puloroi, or doorkeepers, Job 38 : 
1 7. His cheir, or hand, Ps. 59 : 15. And his kentron, 
or sting. And notwithstanding the many have form- 
ed an unholy alliance, or covenant with him, to sup- 
port his iniquitous administration, Is. 28: 15, yet he 
will be cast eis ten limnen tou puros, into the lake of 
fire. Here, my auditors, is the fortunate event my text 
contemplates when death and hell will be destroyed, 
and golden years return again. 

Hades was generally considered by the ancients as a 
deep cavern, or dark region, located in the centre of 
the earth, by those who admitted the spherical form of 
the globe, but according to the vulgar notions of as- 
tronomy among the ancients, it was thought by the ma- 
jority to be as far beneath the earth as the heaven wa6 
above it. — Hence Zophar, speaking to Job of the in- 
comprehensibility of the Deity, says, it is high as 
heaven, deeper than hell. Homer, Hesiod, and Virgil, 
describe Hades as being as far beneath the earth as 
heaven is above it. 

Tosson enerth' haicleo hoson ouranos est apo gaies. — 77. 8, 16. 
Tosson enerth' hupo ges, hoson ouranos est apo gaies. — Theog. 720 

turn Tartarus ipse 

Bis patet in precepts tantum, tanditque sub umbra3 

Quantus ad oethereum coeli suspectus Olympum. — JE*n. 7, 577. 

Josephus, who borrowed his views from the Grecian 
traditions, which had been lately adopted by the Phari- 
sees, tells us " hades is a subterraneous region, where 
the light never shines, and which must therefore be 
perpetual darkness. This region is appointed as a 
place of custody, in which the souls both of the righ- 
teous and unrighteous are detained. Into this region 



HELLOLOGY. 83 

there is only one descent, at whose gate stands an 
archangel with a host. The souls which pass through 
the gate go not all one way. The just are guided to 
the right, and conducted to a luminous region, which 
we call Abraham's bosom. The unjust are dragged to 
the left hand by the angels allotted for punishment, 
who reproach and threaten them by their terrible looks. 
This is evidently the view of hades exhibited in the 
parable, Luke 16. 

From the time of the Pythagorean and Platonic Phi- 
losophy, the hell of the ancient heathen was divided 
into two mansions ; that on the right they called Ely- 
sium, from «, not, and luo, to dissolve, which they in- 
tended to signify eternal existence, and is derived from 
the same word which the apostle employs, Heb. 7:16, 
to express endless duration. The Elysium of the 
Greeks, called by the Jews the bosom of Abraham was 
believed to be a pleasant and delightful place, abound- 
ing in all manner of delicacies ; but its pleasures they 
supposed to be corporeal and sensual. The left hand 
department was appointed for the wicked. This man- 
sion they demoninated Tartarus, either from the verb 
tartarizo, to tremble, or tarasso, to disturb. This was 
the lowest and most dreadful place in hell, in the opin- 
ions of the Greeks and Romans, and is that to which 
the Psalmist alludes, Ps. 86 : 13. It is also mention- 
ed from an apocryphal work, 2 Peter, 2 : 4. The 
entrance or descent into this subterraneous region, the 
Latins supposed to be through the lake Avernus, in 
Campania, near the bay of Putelus, now called Lago 
d'Averno. The exhalation from this lake was be- 
lieved to be destructive to all birds ; hence called Aver- 
nus, from «, negatively, and ornis, a bird. This name, 
however, says Lucretius, was afterwards applied to all 
places or lakes possessing similar qualities.* 

* Nunc age Ave'rna tibi, quae saint locacunque lacusque. — L. 6, 788 



84 HELLOLOGY 

Strabo describes the country around this lake as 
abounding with fountains of warm waters, mixed with 
salt, sulphur, alum, and bitumen, which gave origin to 
the names of Phlegethon and Pyriphlegethon, two riv- 
ers of hell — so called from these warm, sulphurous wa- 
ters. Of this passage to the infernal regions Virgil 
says,t the descent at Avernus is easy, and the gate of 
Pluto lies open night and day. 

The Greeks had a passage into hades at Taenaris. 
a promontory of Peloponnesus, now called Capo Mai- 
na. Of this Virgil also takes notice, when he tells us 
that Orpheus having entered the passage of Taenaris, 
and the lofty gates of Pluto, he visited the shades and 
their terrible king.* 

We cannot refrain from viewing with a mixture of 
pity and ridicule, the foolish fancies of the ancients 
and moderns on the local position of hell. When our 
modern pietists of much devotion, little learning and 
much less sense, address the Maker, they look up, 
supposing him a venerable old man, commodiously 
seated in some lofty region in the Zenith, whilst they 
believe his Satanic majesty holds a commanding po- 
sition in the Nadir, or regions directly beneath. Were 
these sages, who measure heaven and hell, and fix their 
stations in the vast empire of the Deity, to look into a 
book on astronomy, and there discover that the Ze- 
nith and Nadir changed places every twelve hours ; so 
that the point directly above at noon, would be per- 
pendicularly beneath at midnight, how would they be 
alarmed ! Surely that man who looks up to find God, 
believes as much in a local and tutelar deity as the Is- 
raelites, when they adored the calves at Dan and 
Bethel ! 

iM. 6,25. 

* Toenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis 

Ja^ressus, Maaesque adiit regemque tremendum.— Geor. A. 48? 



HELLOLOGY. 85 

Though Hades has sometimes the signification of 
Sheol, and simply intimates the idea of an unknown 
and unseen state, or nonentity,jyet it more generally 
denotes the abode of spirits indiscriminately. In the 
Septuagint it answers to sheol, and cannot therefore 
communicate any other idea than that of the Hebrew 
term. Therefore by Hades, many have understood 
the grave ; and in that sense it is sometimes used by 
the Greek writers. 

Metros d' en hadou kai patros kekeuthotoin, 

Ouk est adelphos hostis an blastoi pote. — Sophocles Antig. 924. 

The Reformers generally maintained in their con- 
troversies with the Catholics, that hades simply deno- 
ted the grave, or state of the dead. Hence Corneil 
a Lapide, in Ephs. 4: 10. asserts that Calvin and Beza 
both denied the descent of Christ to hell ; believing 
hades to mean no more than the grave. Indeed our 
orthodox commentators, on Acts 2 : 27, are as stren- 
uous advocates of the innocent meaning of the term, 
as any Univcrsalist whatever : and the uniform testi- 
mony of competent judges, ancient and modern, af- 
fixes one meaning to the word hades, i. e. the invisi- 
ble world, or abode of spirits. The Greeks assigned 
one hades to all that die : hence they often say, " pan- 
tas homos thnetous haides dechetai. Hades receives 
all the dead." Caius, a Roman Presbyter, adopts 
similar language. " En hadou sunechontai psuchai 
dikaion te kai adikon. The souls of both the just and 
the unjust goto hades." Job exclaims, " Sheol Beth- 
ni, hades is my house, 17: 13. Thou wilt bring me 
to the house appointed for all living." — 30: 23. Both 
Homer and Euripides say of the dead in general, ka- 
telthein eis dom hadou — they go to the house of hades : 
and the learned Wingate says, haiden nekron chorion 
exponunt Geaeci, the Greeks call the place of the 
dead, hades. Homer describing the rage of Achilles, 

8 



86 HELLOLOGY. 

says, it sent prematurely to hades, the souls of many 
brave heroes. 

Tollas d 1 iphthimous psuchas Haidi proiapsen.— //. 1, 4. 
Dr. S. Clark, in his sermon on Ps. 16:10, says, 
" In the New Testament, the word hell sometimes 
denotes a place of punishment for the wicked, in 
other places, the state of the dead in general. But 
this ambiguity is only in the Translation, and not in 
the original ; for wherever a place of torment is 
mentioned, the word is always Gehennah in the ori- 
ginal. But when only the state of the dead is in- 
tended, it is expressed in the original by Hades, a 
quite different word, which though translated hell, sig- 
nifies only the invisible state. Accordingly the pre- 
diction, Mat. 11 : 23, thou Capernaum shalt be brought 
down to hell, means, that great and proud city should 
be leveled with the dust, and utterly disappear as 
those who are buried in the grave. When the rich 
man in hell, lift up his eyes, being in torment, Luke 
16 : 23. The original only signifies that he was in the 
invisible world, wherein were Abraham and Lazarus ; 
to which went Christ and the thief, and all that die, 
both righteous and wicked. When our Lord promi- 
ses, Matt. 1G: 1 e^that the gates of Hefl should not pre- 
vail against his Church, the words pulai hadou. gates 
ofhel?. strictly rendered, signify the passage to the in- 
visible world,' i. e. death ; and the import of the prom- 
ise is, that death itself, the utmost extent of all perse- 
cution, should never be able to suppress his doctrine 
or extirpate his religion from this world. Lastly, 
prophecy intimates- that death and hell will dclr 
the dead, and be then cast into the lake of lire. Hence 
it-is very evident that hell cannot mean either the 
place or state of the damned, but on the contrary, the 
state of death, or death itself, including all human woe, 
which then shall be no more. So in Ps. 16: 10 — 



HELLOLOGY. 87 

Acts 2:27; thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, plain- 
ly implies a solid faith on the resurrection of the body. 
From this explanation of all the texts which relates to 
this subject, concludes the Dr. it is clear the scriptures 
no where teach, that our Lord, by descending into hell, 
ever entered a place appointed for the punishment of 
wicked men, nor is there any thing in reason, from 
which it can, by any just consequence, be inferred.* 1 
[As Mr. Thompson has evidently been less explicit 
in this paragraph than the subject requires, we think 
proper to add a few remarks. As the parable of the 
Rich man and Lazarus is highly figurative, the term 
hades, signifying unqualified darkness, is obviously em- 
ployed as an emblem of the spiritual darkness, which. 
as a veil, was covering the Jewish nation. As to pakti 
hadou,ihe gates of hell, used in Mat. 16 : 18, we fur- 
ther remark, that whatever signification this may bear 
in heathen, or Jewish-heathen mythology, we think 
this application of the phrase, is in this instance, very 
improper. The word gate, is not used in scripture 
exclusively, as the name of a door, or place of en- 
trance. It frequently signifies, court, power, dominion, 
and strength, and is so often thus used, that two or 
three examples must be sufficient. " Thy seed shall 
possess the gate of his enemies.'' Gen. 22: 17. But- 
terworth, in his concordance, quotes this very passage, 
Mat. 16: 18, in the sense of power and dominion. 
Hence we infer, that the power of darkness, the 
strength of ignorance, shall not prevail against the king- 
dom of God, which is a kingdom of light. Light, and 
life, are opposed to darkness, and death, and "the for- 
mer will ultimately prevail. — Editor.] 

Hence we may fairly and reasonably conclude, from 
the unanimous testimony of the mostlearned and im- 
partial Commentators both ancient and modern, that 
Hades does not signify a place appropriated to the 
punishment of the wicked. 



38 HELLOLOGY. 

GEHENNA. 

According to the testimony of the scriptures, and 
the best historians, Gehenna was the name of a valley, 
south-east of Mount Zion, which was the most souther- 
ly of those mountains, on which stood the once cele- 
brated city of Jerusalem. The most remarkable de- 
clivity of Mount Zion looks towards the south-west, 
being formed by a deep ravine, called in scripture Ge- 
Ben-Hinnom, or the valley of Hinnom. This valley 
running from west to east, met on the south-east, the 
valley of Jehoshaphat, or as it is sometimes called, 
the valley of Kedron, from the book of that name by 
which it was watered. Here the horrid rites of human 
sacrifices Were paid to Moloch and Beelphegor. The 
origin of the name is somewhat obscure. From Joshua 
15:8, we should incline to think it obtained the name 
fron. some family called Hinnom, to whom it once be- 
longed. Some think it was so called from the facts 
noticed Is. 66 : 24. The dead bodies of apostates 
and malefactors being exposed as a public example, 
might induce men to call the valley Hinnom, there 
they are, implying, there lie or hang the bodies of those 
vile transgressors who forsook the God of their fathers, 
and followed the vanities of the nations. But others, 
with more accuracy, derive the word from the He- 
brew verb, Hannam, to yell, believing the valley to 
have obtained its name from the shrieks of the children 
sacrificed to Moloch. 

St. Jerome, a native of Palestine, informs us, that 
the valley of Hinnom, called Gehenna in the New- 
Testament, was a fine and beautiful place, adorned 
with gardens and well watered with fountains. The 
grandeur of the scenery first invited the idolatrous 
Amorites, and afterwards the Jews, to erect here the 
standard of superstition. Moloch signifies a king, and 
was, very probably, a brazen image, designed to rep- 
resent the sun, seeing fire was so much used in hi§ 



HELLOLOGY. 89 

worship. This opinion receives support from what is 
said by the prophet Amos, 5 : 26. Selden, who has 
given us a prolix account of this idol and the rites by 
which he was worshipped, adduces several testimonies 
to prove that the Phenicians and other nations, in the 
vicinity of Judea, actually sacrificed their children in 
times of calamity, to this blood-thirsty Demon. Hence 
the phrase " to pass through the fire," signifies to burn 
in sacrifice. — See Deut. 13: 10, 2 Kings 23: 10. 
Lev. 18 : 21. 2 Chron. 28 : 3. Jer. 7 : 31, 19, 5, and 
32 : 35. Ps. 106 : 37, and Ez. 19 : 20, 21. 

Bochart affirms, that all the people of the east, wor- 
shipped the sun, and consecrated to him horses which 
they believed to be nimble as the sun. And as it was 
a prevailing notion that the sun was carried about in a 
chariot — chariots were dedicated to him, and horses 
slain in sacrifice by the Armenians, Persians, and others: 
and for the same reason, the idolatrous kings of Judea, 
were drawn out at the eastern gate of the city, which 
looked towards Tophet, to salute the sun on his ap- 
pearance above the horizon. Accordingly, we find 
that when they worshipped, they turned their faces to- 
wards the east — Ez. 9 : 16. The sun, as an object 
of idolatrous worship, was adored under the names of 
Molech, Adrammelech, Baal, and Bethshemesh, 2 
Kings 23: 5, 11. The following passage from Dio- 
dorus Siculus, L. 20, will show to what an enormous 
extent the fanatical reverence for this fiery god had 
prevailed among the people of the east. " When 
Agathocles, tyrant of Sicily, beseiged Carthage, the in- 
habitants imputing the calamity to the displeasure of 
Saturn, to whom they had lately sacrificed suppositi- 
tious children ; or such as they had privately purchas- 
ed, whereas formerly they had burnt to his honour the 
best of their oitspring : reflecting on these things, and 
seeing the enemy encamped at their very walls, they 
were seized with religious dread, for having profane^ 

8* 



90 ' HEIXOLOGY. 

the honours of the gods, and in haste to rectify their 
errors, they chose two hundred of the noblest children, 
and sacrificed them quickly. Many others, accused 
of irreligion, gave themselves up willingly, to the num- 
ber of no less than three hundred ! For they had a 
brazen statue, stretching out his hands towards the 
ground, in such a manner, that the child placed in them, 
tumbled down into a pit full of fire." 

The following extract from D. Kimchi on 2 Kings 
23 : 10, will tend to explain the tabernacle of Moloch, 
mentioned Acts 7 : 43, " Our Rabbins of happy me- 
mory inform us, that although all other houses of idola- 
try were in Jerusalem, Moloch was without it. His 
image was made hollow, and sat within seven chapels. 
Whoever offered a flower, they opened to him the first 
of these; whoever offered turtles or pigeons, they 
opened to him the second ; to him that offered a lamb, 
they opened the third ; to him that offered a ram, they 
opened the fourth ; to him that offered a calf, they 
opened the fifth ; to him that offered an ox, they open- 
ed the sixth ; but whoever offered his son, to him 
they opened the seventh. 1 ' Fabius also informs us 
that " the image of Moloch was made of brass, curious- 
ly contrived with seven cells, probably to represent 
the seven planets ; and the offerings being put into 
these receptacles, they were shut, and all were burrjt 
to ashes, while the people danced about the idol, and 
beat timbrels or tabrets to drown the cries of the tor- 
mented.'" Who can fail to observe the striking simi- 
larity between those horrid monsters of antiquity, who 
burnt their children while they danced to the sound 
of the timbrel ; and those modern advocates of a still 
more horrible Moloch, who tell us they shall sing in 
heaven, while their children shriek in the unquenchable 
fire of an endless Hell ! Let not the reader be sur- 
prised, for all this is perfectly orthodox, and agreeable 
to the language of the holy fathers. " How shall i 



HELLOLOGY. 91 

laugh, exclaims Tertuiiian, how rejoice, how exult, 
when I behold so many monarchs groaning in the low- 
est abyss of darkness ; so many magistrates. liquefying 
in fiercer fires than ever they kindled for christians ; 
so many sage philosophers blushing in red hot flames !" 
Tophet, like Gehenna, is somewhat of dubious sig- 
nification, In certain passages of scripture it clear- 
ly implies the name of a place ; and from what is 
said of it, Is. 30 : 33, many have supposed it to mean 
hell, or the ahode of the damned. Indeed, Dr. Camp- 
bell thought that in the latter age of Jewish history, 
the word Tophet, was exclusively used to denote the 
heli of the moderns. Of this opinion I was also, dur- 
ing the early part of my ministry.-— But how great 
was my surprise when I first read Jer. 19 : 14. 
*' Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the 
Lord had sent him to prophesy !" What, said I, Jere- 
miah in hell ! and sent there to prophesy ! But on fur- 
ther inquiry, I found Tophet to be the name of a place 
in the valley of Hinnon, near the city of Jerusalem, 
2 Kings 23 : 10, Jer. 7:31. The children of Judah 
built Tophei in the valley of Hinnon, for the express 
purpose of burning their infants to Moloch or Baal, 
when the good feelings of their nature had become 
extinct, by the baneful influence of superstition ; but 
the Jehovah of the Jews declares, the wicked thought 
never entered his heart to build a place for the burn- 
ing of his offspring, see Jer. 7:31, and 32 : 35. To- 
phet was a great image erected to Moloch, hollow 
within, and prepared for the reception of those inno- 
cent victims, which were committed to the flames, as 
expiatory sacrifices to appease the wrath of this sense- 
less god of consuming fire ! O ye worshippers of gods, 
whose very bowels emit columns of liquid flames, and 
whose breath is a stream of brimstone, think of hor- 
rid Moloch. Consider also, if the worshippers of the 
apocalyptic beast, be not tormented as the Jews were, 
by the slavish dread of a terrific monster ! 



92 HELLOLOGY. 

Jewish writers in general are of opinion, that To* 
phet received its name from Toph, a drum, because 
that instrument was used to drown the cries of those 
infants, who were sacrificed to Moloch ; but Le Clerc 
objects to this etymology, because it does not appear 
that large drums were known to the ancients ; and the 
sound of the less, called taber, used in dances, was 
not sufficiently loud ; and for the large we are indebt- 
ed to the Arabians, who first brought them into Spain* 
Though this objection does not seem very forcible, 
yet it is more reasonable to believe that Tophet signi- 
fies a fire-stove, and that the large hollow image of Mo- 
loch was so called ; and probably that part of the val- 
ley of Hinnon, where the image stood, bore the same 
appellation. There is little pleasure in describing 
scenes of horror, but it may be useful to show us the 
evils of a false religion, and inspire us with grateful 
emotions for the enjoyment of the true. Be it known 
then, to the disgrace of the Jews, that although in 
possession of the knowledge of the one only true 
God, like modern Christians, they were too much in- 
clined to the worship of idols ; and having consecra- 
ted the solar fire as a deity, they erected Tophet as 
an altar to one of those agents, which God employs 
for the benefit of the world. An idol of brass, hav- 
ing the head of an ox, but the body of a man, was 
made to represent the fiery god ; and the idol se 
on a throne of brass, a crown was placed on its head, 
and its hands extended to receive their gifts. But 
what gifts were deemed most acceptable ? Ah ! 
the fruits of the field or herds of the stall suific< it 
would have been well, but cruel Moloch cried »r 
blood; and nothing less than the tender pi 
conjugal love, could glut the rapacity of this w :Ii- 
ful deity ! The hollow idol was heated io redness — 
the parent, by a refinement of c in order to ac- 

quire the summit of sanctity, must become the priest 



HELLOLOGY. 93 

; — himself must place his darling in its arms ! No be- 
witching smiles or mournful cries must drive him from 
his purpose. His heart must be steeled against every 
tender impression, and a most complete conquest ob- 
tained over the strongest feelings of humanity. For- 
tunately, the shocking scene was of short duration. 
The sacred drums, impiously so called, drowned the 
cries ; aad whilst the bodies of the innocent children 
became the victims of a merciless superstition, their 
souls reorganized, were received to the embraces of 
a kind and merciful God ! 

To prevent the continuance of this horrid prac- 
tice, Josiah defiled this valley, by making it a common 
depot for the filth of the city, and the bodies of those 
criminals which were refused the rites of burial. 2 
Kings, 23 : 10. This valley was also made the place 
of execution for all who were condemned to be ston- 
ed or burnt to death by the supreme court at Jerusa- 
lem, called the Sanhedrim. According to the Jew- 
ish law there were nineteen offences, which subjected 
the criminal to suffer death by stoning ; and ten, 
which were punished by burning to death, in the fire 
of Gehenna. Many of those wlio were stoned io 
death, were also hanged, and their bodies left to be 
meajt to the fowls of heaven or the beasts of the field. 
Gen. 40 : 19, 2 Sam. 21 ; 9. Jer. 7 : 33, and 19:7. 
Burning was performed either by roasting in the fire, 
Jer. 29 : 22, or in a furnace, Dan. 3 : £ 3, or by pour- 
ing melted lead down their throats. Lightfoot, from 
the Talmuds, informs us, that this last punishment 
was performed in the following manner. " The crim- 
inal being made fast, a towel was put round his neck, 
and two men taking hold of the ends of the towel, one 
pulling one way, and the other the opposite, they for- 
ced him by strangling to open his mouth : then a third 
poured boiling lead down hii throat and burnt his bow- 
els." 



94 HELLOLOGY. 

Some have thought from the peculiar use of the 
valley, Gehenna became proverbial to express any 
great punisment, or afflictive dispensation ; and might 
therefore he used by our Lord, to designate the tor- 
ments of Hell in another world. In favour of this 
supposition, they refer to the Targum on Gen. 3 : 24, 
and 15 : 17. But the Targums were not composed 
till long after the Jews had mixed in captivity, with 
the Pagan nations, and learned of them their fabulous 
ideas concerning the state of the Ghosts in Hades. 

Nothing can be more clear than what has been as- 
serted by Le Clerc and Gibbon, that from the time the 
Jews received the Sinai dispensation of the Law, till 
the Babylonian captivity, the hopes as well as the fears 
of the Jewish nation, were confined within the narrow 
compass of the present life. But after the Jews were 
restored by Cyrus, and became divided into sects, the 
Pharisees received under the name of traditions, the 
doctrine of future rewards and punishments, with seve- 
ral other speculative tenets from the Philosophy or re- 
ligion of the eastern nations. Gibbon's Rome, vol. 1. 
ch. 15. Plato, in Tim. et de Repub. uses such lan- 
guage as to manifest, that he and Socrates borrowed 
their ideas of future rewards and punishments from 
others ; and Suidas informs us they borrowed from the 
Egyptians. But notwithstanding all the influence of 
the Pythagorean and Platonic Philosophy, supported 
in this instance, by the combined interests of Priest- 
craft and King-craft, Cicero, a most consummate phi- 
losopher and statesman, who flourished about fifty 
years before Christ, declares, Tuscul. Quest. L. 1. S. 
10. that the old fables of the Elysian fields and Pluto's 
kingdom, were grown ridicuious, and abandoned to 
the poets and painters ! Moreover, it is extremely fu- 
tile, to refer to Jewish Targums for support to a doc- 
trine denounced by the Jewish scriptures. Had the 
Targums taught the doctrine alleged, though it were 



HELLOLOGY. 59 

only as a Jewish tradition, surely we would much more 
reasonably expect to find it in the Mishna, which was 
the grand repository of all their traditions. Yet so far 
from supporting the doctrine., the quotations of Dr. A. 
Clarke on Mat. 12: 32, show that both the Babylonian 
and Jerusalem Gemara assert, unequivocally, that 
death wipes off all stains, even the sin of blasphemy ! 
We are perfectly in accordance with Dr. S. Clark, 
and Dr. Campbell, in saying that Gehenna is the only 
word, in the New Testament, that signifies a place of 
punishment, but we deny that place of torment to have 
any longer an existence in the vast universe. In order 
to exhibit the sandy foundation on which these learned 
advocates of an invisible Gehenna, have built their 
chimerical palace for Pluto, I shall examine all the 
passages where the word Gehenna occurs in the New 
Testament. In reading the Greek Testament we 
meet with the word Gehenna just twelve times ; and 
the following are all the passages in which it is found. 
Mat. 5: 22, 29, 30—10: 28—18: 9—23: 15, 33. 
Mark 9 : 43, 45, 47. Luke 12:5, and James 3 : G. 
In two of these Mat. 33 : 15, and James 3 : 6, the 
Drs. accede that the word must be understood figura- 
tively. The other ten are divisible into three classes. 
The first class includes those passages where Christ 
cautions his disciples against the sin of apostaey, and 
refers to the mode of punishing such offenders among 
the Jews by burning them in Gehenna. This class 
includes Mat. 5 : 29, 30—10 : 28—1 8 : 9. Mark 9 : 
43, 45, 47. Luke 12, 5. The second class includes 
only one passage. Mat. 5 : 22, where he describes the 
danger of him, who preferred a charge of aoostacy 
against another ; and the third or last contains only 
one, also, namely, Mat. 23 : 33, where our Lord de- 
mands of the scribes and Pharisees, how such serpents 
as they, could escape the punishment of Gehenna. 
Hence the illustration of one passage will sullice for 
the whole, with all intelligent and candid persons. 



9(5 HELLOLOGY. 

In Mat. 5 : 22, Jesus, in allusion to the punishment 
of crimes in the vallev of Hinnom, speaks of the fire of 
Gehenna, which is very unwarrantably translated, hell 
fire. In this passage, three offences are noticed, and 
three degrees of punishment proportionate to the 
crimes 1 An^er and its consequences, lor which 
an appeal might be made to the judgment, or less 
Sanhedrin, consisting of twenty-three Magistrates 
who«e power extended to many capital offences, and 
the infliction of punishment even by strangling or be- 
heading. 2. Contempt, expressed by the oppiobri- 
oustitll ofRaka, or Shallowbrains ; for which the of- 
fender might be arraigned before the Council or Grand 
Sanhedrin, which consisted of seventy-two Elders, 
whose business was to take cognizance of capital of- 
fences only, and especially those committed against 
religion : and to receive appeals from the lower coun- 
cil for the Grand Sanhedrin alone had power to inflict 
the punishment of stoning or burning alive. 3. lne 
third offence consisted in mortal hatred or enmity, ex- 
pressed by the term, Moreh, or apostate. The crime 
of apostacy was generally punished by casting or 
burning alive in Gehenna ; and the force of our Lord • 
words will appear, more strikingly, when we reflect 
that every person, who accused another of apostacy, 
ifhe failed to prove the charge, suffered the punish- 
ment due by the law to the guilty, and was consequent- 
ly burned instead of the accused. ISo wonder then, 
that our master should say, whosoever shall call his 
brother moreh or apostate, shall be in danger of the 
fire of Gehenna. We also hence see the propriety ot 
the admonition in the 29th verse and collateral passa- 
ges, to abandon every thing, though dear as a right 
hand or eye, rather, than by apostacy expose the life 
to destruction, in the fire of Gehenna. I he common 
translation of Mat. 5: 22, and the doctrine generally 
deduced from it, are alike contemptible and ndicu- 



HELLOLOGY. 97 

loas ! What ! our Lord sentence another to hell-fire, 
for an offence of which he himself was frequently guil- 
ty, see Mat. 23 : 17, 19. Luke 11 : 40, and 24 : 25. 
The word hell occurs twelve times in the New Testa- 
ment, as the translation of Gehenna : but surely no 
honest man would have used the former word to ex- 
press the idea of the latter. Hell means a concealed 
place ; but Gehenna was the valley of Hinnom, in the 
neighbourhood of Jerusalem, well known to all the in- 
habitants of that city. There is, therefore, no amnity 
iri the terms, nor in the ideas suggested by them ; and 
accordingly the best versions retain the word Gehen- 
na, wherever it occurs in the Greek. 

Notwithstanding, as Gehenna is called the place 
where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quench- 
ed, Mark 9 : 43 — 49, some farther explanation may 
be necessary. From this passage it has been argued, 
that " our Lord calls the fire, into which the wicked 
shall be cast, unquenchable ; and speaks of Hell as a 
place where the worm dieth not ; and that to show the 
perpetuity of the punishment of the wicked, he adds, 
every one shall be salted with fire.'' But " this argu- 
ment, says Newcome, is founded upon a false interpre- 
tation of the metaphors, which are here employed ; 
and is altogether fallacious. Jesus only speaks of the 
wicked being cast into the valley of Hinnom, into the 
unquenchable fire, where the worm dieth not. Yet 
in the valley of Hinnom, the worm died when its food 
failed, and the pile on which human sacrifices were 
burnt to Moloch, was often extinguished. Salt being 
a preservative of food, was among the Jews an em- 
blem of virtue and knowledge, by which the mind is 
purified, Col. 4 : 6.'' God says of the fire on the Le- 
vitical altar, it shall never go out. Lev. 6 : 13. That 
he would kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem that 
shall never be quenched. Jer. 17 : 27. Ez. 20 : 47, 
48. The smoke of Idumea was to go up for ever, and 

9 



98 HELLOLOGY. 

its fire not to be quenched. Is. 34: 10. Yet these 
fires have all ceased to burn many hundreds of years 
ago. 

There were many circumstances which caused the 
valley of Hinnom to obtain the title of a place " where 
the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 
In Gehenna, 135,000 of the army of Sennccharib fell 
by a fiery pestilential disease, and thereby the prophe- 
cy, Is. 30: 33, was almost literally fulfilled. For this 
king of Assyria, Tophet was ordained, and the breath 
of the Lord like a stream of brimstone enkindled the 
fire for the destruction of his army. At the time Je- 
rusalem was taken by the Babylonians, thousands of 
slaughtered Jews were thrown in heaps in this valley, 
according to Jer. 7 : 33, and 19:7. It was the place 
of public execution for criminals, and a common depot 
for not only all bodies refused the rites of burial, but 
also for all manner of pollution. To prevent noxious 
vapours from proving injurious to the health of the 
city, a fire was kept continually burning to consume 
the bones, decayed bodies of the slain, hanged, gib- 
bited, and the common filth of the city, which being 
largely supplied, caused the fire to obtain the epithet, 
unquenchable. Dead bodies exposed to the influence 
of the atmospheric air, soon became putrid and cloth- 
en with worms ; hence the valley received the name 
of the place where the worm dieth not and the fire is 
not quenched, Is. 64 : 24, Mark 9 : 44. But how 
wild is it to suppose the existence of a place like Ge- 
henna, in another world ? Can fire and worms sub- 
sist together? Can worms eat spirits, and fire burn in- 
corruptible bodies ? No ! Let man be immortal, and 
all the fires of a thousand Hells shall be unable to in- 
jure him ! 

TARTARUS. 

Though some might consider an explanation of this 
term essential in a discourse of this nature, yet we 



HELLOLOGY. 99 

Jeem it almost entirely unnecessary, because the word 
never occurs in any part of scripture universally ac- 
knowledged by christians. The second Epistle of Pe- 
ter, especially the second chapter, has been disputed 
in all ages ; and the probability is, that if genuine, 
the apostle, without approving the fanciful notions of 
the Heathen, might cite a commonly received opinion, 
and argue from acknowledged principles. When we 
treated of Hades, we there observed that Tartarus was 
supposed to be the lowest and darkest department of 
that subterranean region. From what is said 2 Peter 
2 : 4, 17, and Jude 13, Dr. Campbell, Ewing, and 
others, suppose Tartarus to be the dungeon or prison- 
house of Hades, where the ghosts are reserved in 
chains, or solitary confinement, might we not ask these 
sages how spirits disembodied can be chained, or what 
doors or walls can confine immaterial beings ? Bujt 
poor orthodoxy must avoid interrogation as well as de- 
finition. It seems then that while Hades was esteem- 
ed a kind of Debtors 1 prison, Tartarus was regarded 
as the solitary cells of criminals. But though super- 
stition's fancy paint her gloomy scenes in different 
shades, still Hades and Tartarus were considered as 
one and the same, and never were, nor are they yet, 
believed, by the learned, to be the abode of linal 
wretchedness. To this opinion Dr. Campbell fully 
agrees, and the best Lexicographers define the words 
accordingly. Tartarus, says Phavorinus, " aer hupo- 
gaios kai aneliosf u subterranean air, where the sun 
shines not ;" and Stephanus defines Hades " hupogaias 
tqpos skoieinos — a dark place under the earth.'''' 

We have now finished our investigation concerning 
the import of the Hebrew and Greek terms translated 
Hell, in the common English version, and venture to 
conclude, that not a word in all the Greek and He- 
brew scriptures, signifies a place of punishment for the 
wicked after death. On fable, on pagan fable alone, 



100 HELLOLOGY. 

have orthodox divines built the antichristian dogma of 
Hell-torments*. 

■1U9Q91 — 

SECTION XX. 

HELL DESTROYED. 

Lecture on 1 Cor. 15 : 55. O Hell, where is thy Victory. By Rev. 
J. S. Thompson. 

Brethren in the Gospel of Christ, and Fellow heirs 
of the heavenly inheritance — You have heard of the 
grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men, and 
have been induced to admit that such a dispensation 
merited the title of Evangelical, good news. But 
when this grace of God displays its glories by triumph- 
ing over sin, death, and hell — you are constrained to 
exclaim with Paul, it is the glorious gospel of the bles- 
sed God. Herein you behold it unbosom the eternal 
and unchangeable love of God towards mankind, by 
forming them in goodness, directing them in wisdom, 
glorifying them in power, and performing all things, 
tor the exaltation of his own glory, and the eternal 
beatification of all his intelligent offspring. I know 
not with what feelings you have assembled this eve- 
ning — whether you arc disposed to hear what God the 
Lord will say, or determined to hold the vulgar opin- 
ions for the sake of popularity : O my God, save me 
from being a dissembler, a sycophant and bigot. Let 
me die an independent man, that my death may be 
glorious ; but may I never live an hour in sinful con- 
formity, alike detested by God and honest men. The 
reading which I have adopted is supported by the 
Greek text, the best translators and commentators of 
ancient and modern times, and is the reading found in 
the margin of many of our Bibles. The word Hades, 
which occurs eleven times in the New Testament, is 
rendered hell in all excepting my text, where it is 



HELLOLOGY. 101 

translated grave. In this the crafty translators, whose 
heads and creeds were equally fall of hell and damna- 
tion, betrayed their attachment to the pious frauds of 
antiquity, and their disposition to save from ruin their 
favourite system. They perceived that if the word 
Hades should be translated hell, in the text, the doc- 
trine built on this supposititious foundation would come 
to nought. Hell having lost its victory, and death its 
sting, universal salvation must follow ; and the Pagan 
doctrine of hell torments, which had been introduced 
into the christian system, be for ever neglected. Be- 
holding the inevitable catastrophe which would befal 
the whole system, rather than admit that the good 
news would extend to all people, they exposed them- 
selves to the just charge of corrupting the word of God 
—2 Cor. 2: 17. 

Awful as the terms, death and hell, may sound in 
your ears, my text unfolds the grace which will tri- 
umph over sin. It is an abyss which will swallow up 
death in victory ; it is a key which shall unlock the 
gates of Hades, and let the prisoners go free. Death 
being the wages of sin, followed it as a conse? 
quence ; but sin being destroyed, death and the grave 
must cease to devour, and hell herself be robbed of her 
prey. 

Friends, I undertake to disprove the wicked doc- 
trine of hell torments. If I succeed we shall rejoice 
together that men are now delivered from that which 
held them, all their lifetime, in bondage through fear of 
death, I shall achieve for you a more glorious liberty 
than that of which a Washington could boast, and in- 
troduce a new epoch in history, more important than 
ever has yet been commemorated by the offspring of 
Adam. Great God favour my efforts ! 

The doctrine of Hell torments is drawn from false 
premises, these are that 1. sin is infinite and eternal, 
2. the eternal purpose and pleasure of the Deity is; 

9* 



1,02 HELLOLOGY. 

that men continue to insult his character and govern- 
ment, that he may have the honour and satisfaction of 
damning them to new and untried scenes of torture, 
during his own lifetime. The absurd doctrine of in- 
finite sin depends on two others equally absurd and 
monstrous, namely, there shall be an eternal law of 
prohibition, and an eternal propensity or liability to 
sin, therefore an eternal hell. An everlasting hell 
was built by Paganising christians on the supposition 
that sin is infinite, which they supposed to be the vio- 
lation of an infinite law, whose penalty was eternal 
damnation. Now if sin be infinite, it must be so ei- 
ther in the parts, or in the aggregate ; if not in the 
parts, it cannot be in the whole, for infinity can never 
be shown to consist of parts. If thus one sin be infi- 
nite, and infinity cannot be augmented, then all the 
sin committed since Adam, amounts to just nothing ; 
for his sin being infinite, could not be augmented ; and 
therefore, joy to a world of sinners ! they have nothing 
to fear. Moreover, if infinite sin merits infinite pun- 
ishment, then one sinner deserves all the punishment 
of an eternal hell — and God himself cannot prepare 
more than infinite punishment ; consequently there 
never could be more than one sinner, nor more than 
one sufferer in the universe. It would be absurd to 
suppose that God ever gave such a law — there is no 
intimation of it in the Bible ; infinite sin is nonsense, 
and infinite punishment is equally ridiculous. Now if 
such be the law, purpose and disposition of the Deity, 
no man but a mean, ignorant hypocrite, would say he 
deserves better treatment than the insults of the wick- 
ed or the curse of the damned ! ! But I shall plead, 
on behalf of the God and Father of my master Christ 
Jesus, not guilty — and endeavour to remove the re- 
proach from his character, by demonstrating the falsity 
of the charge from the evidences of Almighty power 
and love, derived from the voice of reason and the tes- 
timony of Revelation. 



HELLOLOGY. 103 

In all the descriptions of the divine law given in the 
sacred oracles, it is uniformly represented a? a rule of 
life, a ad all its promises and threatenings are commen- 
surate with the present imperfect state of existence. 
The law was not made for a perfect man : hat for the 
lawless and disobedient ; and there is no intimation in 
the Bible of disobedience ever having entered the world 
of spirits. All moral evil or imperfection, is confined 
to the carnal and terrene existence, and can never pas^ 
the gates of death. The whole testimony of God on 
this subject, is summarily expressed by Paul in one 
brief sentence, "he that is dead is free from sin,' 3 
Rom. 6 : 7. The supposition of man's liability to sin 
in another mode of existence is irrational and anti- 
scriptural, and also repugnant to the moral change, 
which all human beings experience in death, and the 
wicked thought that God's pleasure is the destruction 
ofhis creatures, is denounced by the oath of Jehovah 
and the mission of Jesus, -Ez. 11:1 Tim. 2 : 4. John 
3: 17. and 1 John 4: 11. 

If all sin originate in the earthly or sensual body, will 
not the dissolution of this earthly body terminate the 
reign of sin? Again, if the condemnation due to sin 
be protracted one year after sin has ceased, what as- 
surance have we that condemnation will ever be re- 
moved ? May not the same disposition in Deity that 
leads him to punish sin one year after it cease, induce 
him to punish eternally ? If man be freed from tempt- 
ation or liability to sin, at death, ought any thing less 
than actual experience or the plain testimony of God, 
induce us to admit, that man can suffer after death 1 
These questions are designed for the consideration of 
those who believe in purgatorial or disciplinary pains 
after death, as well as for the awakening of those who 
dream of everlasting Torments. 

An endless hell is useless, even according to the 
opinions of its advocates. They affirm, men will ever 



104 HELLOLOG1. 

be atoning for their sin, but never succeed to exp 
even the least crime they may have committed. — 
Hence the punishment of hell must be inflicted to 
gratify a malignant and revengeful passion in the Dei- 
ty. Sure nothing less than pure malevolence could 
inflict pain for no other purpose than the gratification 
of incensed wrath. If the torments of hell could an- 
swer any good purpose, we could admit them ; but 
they are neither for example nor correction, conse- 
quently, they are the offspring office, unmerited ma- 
levolence ! Who can address a prayer to Jehovah, 
and call him father, believing that he prepared hell for 
man, whom, unasked, he had thrown into existence, 
knowing that he would terminate his course in the 
terrific regions of despair. O Calvinists, what think ye 
of your God, who begets children, makes a lire for 
them, and burns them to death ? Nay, that is nothing ; 
he immortalizes their existence to please himself with 
their contortions ! O Arminian, what better is your 
God, who makes man, prepares the tire, clears the 
way, and sits calm and composed while he beholds his 
creatures going into the fire, and for ever writhing in 
the liquid names ! ! 

Some o{ my auditors, who revolt with horror from 
the doctrine of an endless hell, are still inclined to ap- 
prove the doctrine of Purgatory. This dogma ori- 
ginated as far as we can ascertain, with the Platonic 
philosophy, lie taught that there is in matter a cer- 
tain refractory force, which resists the will of the 
meat Artificer. Out of the soul of the universe, which 
had itself become contaminated by material mixture, 
God formed inferior souls, numerous as the stars, 
and sent them down to the earth to be imprisoned in 
bodies. But the soul being immortal, by disengaging 
itself from animal passions and rising to the contem- 
plation of a world of intelligences, might regain its 
original habitation. Matter can never suffer annihila- 



IIELLOLOGY. 105 

tion; the world therefore, shall be forever; and by 
the action of the animating principle, it accomplishes 
certain periods in which every thing returns to its 
ancient place or state. See Enfield's History of Phi- 
losophy. 

The Platonic and Pythagorean doctrines had been 
admitted into the traditions of the Pharisees before the 
time of Christ — John 9 : 2. Their ideas of punish- 
ment were Platonic, and those of a resurrection Pytha- 
gorean. Josephns tells us that in the region of Hades, 
angels are appointed as guardians of the souls, who dis- 
tribute temporary punishments to them, agreeable 
to every one's behaviour and manner. Virgil causes 
Anchises to teach this doctrine to iEneas.* 

For sin are various penances enjoined, 

And some are hung to bleach upon the wind, 

Some plunged in waters, others purged in fires, 

Till all the dregs are drained, and all the rust expires. 

The souls thus cleansed, to blest abode repair, 

And breathe in ample fields, the soft Elysian air. 

In these lines Virgil describes the threefold means 
of removing the pollution of the sinner ; First, by the 
winds ; Second, by water ; and Third, by lire. That 
after they had undergone purification they were intro- 
duced into the fields of the blessed. Origen adopted 
the Platonic doctrine and enlarged on it, and hence 
it became the prevailing sentiment among the chris- 
tians of the third century. 

The description of the infernal regions had been 
abandoned to the fancy of painters and poets, who 
peopled them with so many phantoms and monsters, 
who dispensed their rewards and punishments with so 

* "Supplicia expendunt, aliae panduntur inanes 
Suspensae ad ventos : aliis sub gurgite vasto 
Infectum eluitur seclus, aut exuntur igni. 
Quisque suospatimur manes. Exinde per amplutn 
Mittimur Elysium/'— .Eneid, 6, 740. 



106 IIELLOLOGY. 

little equity, that a doctrine, the most congenial to the 
human heart, was disgraced by the absurd mixture of 
the wildest fictions. The doctrine of a future slate 
was not held in repute by the polythcists of Greece 
and Rome. They believed the providence of the 
gods to be visibly displayed on the theatre of the pres- 
ent world ; therefore they neither feared nor expect- 
ed a future state of existence. 

The doctrine is inferred from the abuse of the 
terms, Hell and damnation. We have shown that the 
word Hell, in its modern signification, is totally abjur- 
ed by the spirit of prophecy and the testimony of Je- 
sus : and consequently it is a violation and corruption 
of divine truth, to place such a word in the Bible. 
We shall now show that it is equally abusive to in- 
trude the word damnation, on the sacred records of 
life and immortality. From Krino, to distinguish or 
judge, is derived Krites, a judge or critic ; Krisis, a 
distinguishing, a judging, or determining ; and Kri- 
ma, a decision or sentence. But if Krisis or Krima 
mean damnation, then Krino, must mean to damn, all 
judging must be damning, and every judge, a damned 
person ! Let us however admit the reading of Mat. 
23 : 33, and John 5 : 29, " damnation of Gehenna, 1 ' 
— " Resurrection of damnation," and then let us 
translate accordingly the following passages, where 
the same word, Krisis, occurs. John 5 : 22, the Fa- 
ther hath committed all damnation to the Son. Vcr. 
27, given him authority to execute damnation — Verse 
30, my damnation is just — John 1G : 7 — 11, the com- 
forter will reprove the world concerning damnation, 
because the prince of this w r orld is damned. Judc 
1 4, the Lord comcth to execute damnation on all ! 
Again, we shall take the word Krima, and translate it 
damnation. John 9 : 39, for damnation I am come 
into the world — 1- Peter, 4: 17. Damnation must 
begin at the house of God ! Lastly, let us take the 



HELLOLOGY. 107 

^vord damn. Mark 16 : 16, he that believeth not 
shall be damned. John 8 : 10, 11, hath no man 
damned thee— neither do I damn thee — Mat. 12 : -41, 
42, the men of Nineveh shall rise and damn this gene- 
ration — the Queen of the South shall damn it. In 
these passages the Greek word is Katakrino, hut the 
simple verb Krino is also rendered to damn by our 
translators, 2 Thes. 2 : 12. God shall send them delu- 
sion, that they all may be damned. Now we shall 
use the same liberty in a few instances. John 5 : 22, 
the Father damneth no man — 3 : 17, the Father sent 
not the Son to damn the world. John 12: 47. If 
any man hear my words and believe not, I damn him 
not ; for I came not to damn the world,'but to save the 
world. But some may be disposed to exclaim, stop, 
you abuse the scriptures ! Nay rather, I would show 
you how you have abused them, by putting into them, 
the pagan and diabolical terms, Hell and damnation — 
I therefore conclude that there is no word, in the ori- 
ginal Scriptures, that can, with even a shadow of pro- 
priety, be used to signify the punishment of Hell, 
which is what is generally meant by damnation. 

The doctrine of future rewards and punishments, 
was built on the supposition of the immortality of the 
soul ; a doctrine as fanciful as any of which the rev- 
eries of imagination can boast. All the phenomena 
from birth to death, are repugnant to the immateriali- 
ty and immortality of the human soul ; and compel 
us to admit with Lucretius, what all experience dem- 
onstrates, that the human mind grows and decays with 
the body.* God has given us reason to distinguish, 
and senses to perceive and reflect ; but this very rea- 
son shows the absurdity of embracing an opinion of 
spirit, which none of these senses will support. This 
doctrine was invented in Egypt, the mother of super- 

* Quoque pariter cum corpors et una crescere sentimus, paritcr- 
nue senescere mentem. 



103 HELLOLOGY. 

stition, and brought by Orpheus to Greece. Thence 
it passed to the Romans ; and being so admirably 
adapted to flatter human pride, Indians, Scythians, 
Gauls, Germans and Americans, eagerly received the 
dogma. The hypothesis of future punishment served 
two important purposes ; first as a reply to the Athe- 
ists, who objected to the unequal distribution of good 
and evil in the present state ; secondly, to restrain the 
manners of men, through the fear of being miserable 
in another world. Legislators believing the doctrine 
to act as a powerful charm, used their utmost exer- 
tions to trive it publicity and influence. Hence Po- 
ly bius blames the great men of his time for teaching 
the common people to despise the fables of the poets, 
and represents them as useful fictions. This doctrine 
was received by the Pharisees under the reign of the 
Asmonean princes, as well as several other articles 
from the philosophy of the eastern nations, such as 
fate, predestination, angels and spirits. See Gibbon's 
Rome, vol. 1. chap. 15. 

Though the philosophers sometimes pretend to 
countenance the dogma of future punishment, yet they 
taught that death would terminate all our sufferings ; 
and in order to reconcile the minds of men to bodily 
dissolution, they affirmed death would either be an 
utter extinction of being, or a change for the better, 
for with one voice they all rejected every kind of fu- 
ture punishment. Pythagoras taught that all souls 
were a portion of the great soul of the universe, and 
discarded the notion of future punishment, as a vain 
terror. — Plato sometimes favours the representations 
of the poets, at other times despises them, as convoy- 
ing too frightful ideas of futurity. — Cicero not only 
disavows, but even ridicules the doctrine of future- 
punishment, and represents it to be opinion of the phi- 
losophers, that the gods are never angry, and there- 
fore incapable of hurting any person whatever. 



HELLQLOGY. 109 

Josephus appears to have had clear ideas of the 
origin of the doctrine, for, describing the religion of 
the Essens, he says " they had the same notion as the 
Greeks, who allowed the islands of the blessed to 
their brave men, and the regions of the ungodly in 
hades to the wicked, who, as their fables relate, are 
punished there. Hence their dehortations from vice, 
and exhortations to virtue, whereby the good are bet- 
tered by the hope of reward after death, and the vi- 
cious restrained by fear of torment. These doctrine^ 
lay an unavoidable bait for such as have once had a 
taste of their philosophy." 

As our Lord delivered some of his discourses in 
the vicinity of Gehenna, a reference is made to that 
valley three times in the gospel history. But will any 
one pretend that the Jews believed, there would be 
a place in another world like Gehenna, in the neigh- 
borhood of their city ? Did our Lord ever inform his 
hearers that after death men would be put into a place 
like Gehenna ? Answer these questions in the affirm- 
ative, and show the proofs, or for ever abandon the 
wicked dogma. To what part of the universe can we 
look for the modern hell, whose elements are fire and 
flame, the abode of creatures totally abandoned by 
God ; where infinite wrath perpetually abides ; where 
nothing can be felt but inexpressible torments — nor 
heard but incessant groans and curses to all eternity ? 
O ye Pagan fabulists and worshippers of Moloch, give 
to your gods the glory due to their deeds ; but do not 
blaspheme our God also ! In vain do paganizing 
Christians tell us of bible hells and evangelical tor* 
ments. O, if there were not a single sentence, in all 
the bible, on behalf of salvation, but that psalm, 145 : 
9, u his tender mercies are over all his works,' 5 it 
alone would suffice to water out all the hells of the 
universe ! 

Punishment in another state of being was never 
10 



tlO HELLOLOGY. 

threatened, by God, as the penalty of any law which 
he ever gave to mankind — therefore it cannot be in- 
Ihcted. — Deity cannot inflict a punishment for the 
breach of a law, which has never been promulgated ; 
nor for the violation of a law, to which man was inca- 
pable of yielding obedience. Now where, in the vol* 
umc.of revelation, tias God published a law, the pen- 
alty of which is damnation, in a future mode of exis- 
tence ? Our eagle-eyed, evangelical preachers, have 
discovered this heavy threatening in the phrase, 
u thou shalt die!" If so, then why arc they not 
afraid, for the threatening is unconditional 1 If to die, 
means to die spiritually and eternally, then all who 
die must undergo the penalty ; and be for ever aban- 
doned of God to the regions of despair, where all the 
guilty ghosts of Adam's race must for ever shriek and 
howl, 

Beneath the weight of heavy chains, 
Tormenting racks and fiery coals ; 
And darts to inflict immortal pains, 
Dipt in the blood of damned souls ! ! ! 

Had the heathen poet heard these heralds of dam- 
nation proclaim the corruscations of divine wrath, he 
would doubtlessly have cried out 

Tantasne animis ccelestibus irae — Mn. 1,11. 

Can heavenly minds such dire resentment show, 
Or exercise their spite in human woe ? 

Surely these advocates of endless misery, must be 
unbelievers themselves, otherwise they would fear to 
add to the revelation of heaven, lest God should add 
to them the plagues written in his book. But perhaps 
they are of the same mind with their pious ancestors, 
that God will never bring men to account for pious 
frauds or useful corruptions of the sacred text ! O for 
(he day when every man will speak the truth to his 



HELLOLOGY. 1 1 1 

neighbour, and the priest's lips keep knowledge, that 
the people may learn the law from his mouth ! 

In the annals of history, we read not of a more un- 
provoked hatred, and a more base crime than that of 
Cain. Abel had brought his offering to the altar of 
the most high God, and presented it with affections of 
gratitude to the sovereign of heaven, and love to all 
his creatures. His sacrifice was accepted ; Cain's 
heart boils with indignation — the venom of his spleen 
had almost destroyed him ; nothing can glut his ven- 
geance, till he dyes his hands in his brother's blood ! 
Surely the thunders of the Almighty will not sleep, nor 
his lightnings cease to play, till the wretch be hurled 
into the hottest of Tartarean flames. Yet strange to 
relate, the gracious God of heaven only threatens 
him with temporal banishment, from the society of his 
brethren or father's family. O Cain, had you lived in 
the days of orthodoxy, they would have told you such 
news as would have harrowed up your spirits ; for to 
all the temporary pains threatened by God, they 
add eternal misery, in the lake that burns with fire 
and brimstone ! 

When God gave the law on Sinai, amidst thunders* 
lightnings, tempests, and smoke, we might have natu- 
rally expected, that if he ever intended to denounce 
damnation, fire would have proceeded from fire, and 
smoke from smoke ! But will any man be so wild or 
fanatical as to assert, that the Jewish law contained 
any such threatening as eternal misery ? No Jew, pre- 
vious to the Babylonian captivity ever imagined that 
God would punish him, in another world, for sins 
committed against the Mosaic institution. The heav- 
iest penalty ever threatened in the Jewish law, was 
the loss of life or the dispersion of that nation. Shall 
it be pretended that God concealed the pains of hell, 
till the sinner was snared and taken, and then inflict- 
ed the never-ending torments of a merciless burning 



» 



J 12 HELLOLOGY. 

fire ! God forbid, that I should so blaspheme my Crea- 
tor's character and government. 

Can it be admitted that the glorious gospel of the 
blessed God contains those dreadful denunciations, un- 
known to the Mosaic dispensation ? Surely not. Je- 
sus is the mediator of a better covenant, founded on 
better promises. The law is called the ministration 
of death, and the gospel the ministration of life ; can 
then the ministration of life, unfold the horrors of an 
eternal death, unknown to that very dispensation, 
which was emphatically denominated the ministration 
of death ? 

Reviewing, on this part of our subject, what is call- 
ed Evangelical preaching, we may apply to modern 
preachers, the language of God by the prophet Jeremi- 
ah ; Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard ; 1hcy 
have made my pleasant portion a wilderness. Chap. 
12: 10. They think to cause my people to forget 
my name by their dreams. Behold 1 am against the 
prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and 
say he saith. Jcr. 23: 27 — 31. Often have 1 chal- 
lenged these dreamers to produce a single passage 
from the sacred scriptures, wherein God had threaten- 
ed man with punishment after death ; but though my 
request has frequently caused the little divines to rage, 
vet it always proved a sovereign anodyne to all my 
philosophical and literary opponents. Indeed 1 have 
fully come to this conclusion, which I deem perfectly 
correct, that were it not for ignorance, fanaticism, and 
the love of gain, there could not be found a single ad- 
vocate of hell torments ! ! 

The law kiileth, but the gospel or spirit of life 
quickeneth. Like the good God from whom it sprang, 
it is a fountain of living waters whose streams magnifi- 
cently flow in glorious abundance, producing life and 
purity throughout the vast empire of the universe. 
The excellence of the new covenant and its superior- 



HELLOLOGY. 113 

ity will appear, by considering that all the promises 
are absolute and unconditional ; and therefore inca- 
pable of mutation. From the first proclamation of 
the gospel, all the blessings of it were pronounced to 
be free grace, flowing from an impartial God, and 
therefore for the whole family of the great universal 
Parent. 

When Jehovah said to Adam, "the seed of the wo- 
man shall bruise the serpent's head ;" when he prom- 
ised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that in their seed, 
i. e. Christ, 4i all the families of the earth shall be 
blessed,' ' were not these promises unconditional ? Is 
the law, says Paul, against these promises of God. Gal. 
3 : 17, 21,-^Grod forbid ! The law which was 430 
years after, cannot disannul the covenant of God in 
Christ, that it should make the promises of none ef- 
fect. Micah, addressing the great God, says, " Thou 
wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to 
Abraham, which thou hast sworn to our fathers from 
the days of old." Micah 7 : 20. Jehovah never can 
change, therefore his truth and covenant shall endure 
for ever. Men may err through ignorance, from the 
right way, and God may chasten them with rods, yet 
will he never make void his covenant, nor change that 
which he has spoken, but his faithfulness will remain 
to all generations. — Ps. 89 : 30, 35. I will make a 
new covenant saith the Lord, not according to the 
covenant I made with Israel when I brought them out 
of Egypt : I will print my law in their inward parts, 
and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and 
they shall be my people ; they shall all know me from 
the least to the greatest, for I will remember their 
sins no more. — Jer. 32: 31, 35. Heb. 8: 8, 13. 
God's record concerning his Son, is that we, the whole 
offspring of Adam, have eternal life in him. The un- 
believer attempts to make God a liar, by not believing 
God's report ; notwithstanding, the unbelief of man 
10* 



114 HELLOLOGY. 

ran never make the word of God of none effect. 
The gift of God which comes to all men, is eternal 
life ; and when Jesus our life shall appear, we shall 
be like him; for he will change our vile bodies into 
his glorious image, and so we shall be ever with the 
Lord.— John 3: 2. Phil. 3: 21. 

Punishment in the future world is inconsistent with 
the justice .of God, and the changes to which the hu- 
man body is subjected. Such are the laws of animal 
economy, and the transmigration of matter, that pain 
must immediately follow the vicious act as its conse- 
quent, or otherwise it cannot with propriety be inflict- 
ed. Through the afflux and deflux of particles, (he 
human body is perpetually changing, and must entire- 
ly change every five or six years ; therefore God has 
ordained that the righteous are recompensed in the 
earth, much more the wicked and the sinner. There 
is no peace, saithmy God, to the wicked ; they have 
no rest day nor night, but are continually tormented. 
In a word, the wicked are turned into hell, i. e. trou- 
ble, fear and pain, from the day they assume the char- 
acter, till they cease to be wicked — then, and not till 
then, shall they enter into rest. O the riches both of 
the goodness and wisdom of God. 

Some may ask shall not the wicked be put into hell 
after death ? Is not this the meaning of the Psalmist, 
Ps. 9:17? I answer, no ; the Pagan hell was after 
death, but the biblical hell is iivthis state of being. 
Poor mistaken man, no longer dream that thou canst 
sin wilfully, and yet escape the just chastisement of the 
Lord. His hand will find thee out. His eyes run to 
and fro through the earth, beholding the righteous and 
the wicked, and men will distinguish ; they must see, 
if guided by truth and light, that God malreth a dif- 
ference between him that serveth the Lord, and him 
who serveth him not. Mai. 3 : 15. 



HELLOLOGY. 115 

In this body dwell those propensities which induce 
man to sin. — Bodily appetites and passions entice the 
man. Sin and suffering follow unlawful indulgence. 
In the self-same body in which man offends, in it he 
shall undergo the reward of his folly, and there is no 
respect of persons. 

The doctrine of the resurrection prohibits the doc- 
trine of future misery. Many have supposed that 
God will raise the dead in similar circumstances to 
those in which they departed this life, but the suppo- 
sition is heathenish and anti-scriptural. Paul treats 
largely of the resurrection, but never intimates that 
any should have reason to dread the consequences. 
He affirms, that as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall 
all be made alive. Death was the wages of sin ; it 
followed as a consequent, but grace reigning through 
Jesus, the common Lord and Redeemer of man, 
abounds to the obliteration of guilt, and the introduc- 
tion of everlasting righteousness ; abolishes sin and 
its consequences, disease and death ; brings immor- 
tality to light, and passes upon all men for justification 
of life, which the Son of God imparts to every man 
without exception. In the history of the resurrection 
Paul does not contemplate moral character, nor dis- 
tinguish parties. Therefore, he adopts the human 
body, as the subject concerning which he predicates all 
he says, concerning a future state of being. This 
body is committed to the earth in dishonour, it is rais- 
ed in glory ; in weakness, but raised in power ; it is 
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body ; it 
is sown in corruption, but raised incorruptible ; a mor- 
tal body, but raised immortal. All must be changed. 
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 
As we have borne the image of the earthly, so we 
shall bear the image of the heavenly. Our first state 
of being has been earthly, earn a I, "sensual, fleshly, cor- 
rupt and mortal ; but our second mode of being, shall 



116 HELLOLOGY. 

be heavenly, spiritual, intellectual, incorruptible, and 
immortal. O glorious state of unchangeable, unmixed 
felicity. When shall we enter into it and see the joys 
of our Lord ! Rejoice, believers. Rejoice in the 
Lord, his beloved disciple informs you, when Jesus 
appears, you shall be like him, i. e. he shall change 
your vile body, and fashion it like to his glorious bo- 
dy, by that power by which lie is able to subdue all 
things to himself — Phil. 3: 21. Jesus, the faithful 
and the true witness, testifies, that in the resurrection, 
men shall be as tfie angels of God ! Luke 20 : 36. 
Blessed Saviour, never did the base notions of the 
resurrection proclaimed by pretended orthodoxy, en- 
ter thy mind ; nor were they known to thine apostles. 
On the contrary, they proclaim glory, honour, and 
immortality to every soul of man, every son and 
daughter of Adam without distinction, as God's free 
gift to the whole human race. See Rom. 2 : 9. 

No rational man could ever have indulged in oppo- 
site sentiments, had not his mind been abased by su- 
perstition and dishonourable views of God. There 
could be no proportion between the finite feeble acts 
of men, and interminable pain or bliss — for the evil 
or good which man may perform in this life, is abun- 
dantly recompensed. The future state of existence 
is entirely of free, sovereign, and unmerited favour ; 
and as God is impartial, he bestows it on all his intel- 
ligent offspring indiscriminately. In this appears the 
character and conduct of a truly benevolent father ; 
he was able to impart blessings and happiness to all 
his offspring, he showed his impartiality and wisdom 
in doing so. The Diatheke, testament, or will which 
he made, bequeathed eternal felicity and immortal 
happiness to all the legatees ; and his wisdom and 
power provided the means, as Omniscience saw ne- 
cessary, to place every one in full possession of the 
inheritance. — O how inexpressibly better are the 



HEkLOLOGY. 117 

promises of the new covenant, than those of the old. 
These were conditional and temporal, hut eternal and 
universal honour to the Most High God, possessor of 
heaven and earth ; the promises of the new and well 
ordered covenant are absolute and eternal. The 
crown is incorruptible, and fadeth not away, reserved 
in heaven for us. All the men inearth, or devils in 
hell, if such beings and place exist, could never touch 
that crown of righteousness, which the Lord the right- 
eous judge will give in the day of the resurrection 
and restitution. Gospel hearers, the heavens must 
retain Jesus till the time of the restitution of all things, 
but the apostle tells you that he expected the Lord 
Jesus from heaven to change our vile bodies and make 
them like his glorious body. The change and restitu- 
tion are the same. At that happy period, foretold by 
ihe prophet, 

His own soft hand shall wipe the tears 

From every weeping eye, 
And pau&s, and groans, and griefs, and fears, 

And death itself shall die. 



SECTION 1X1. 

Further remarks on the words Sheol and Hades. Reasons for dis- 
believing in the modern use of these terms, urged from scripture 
usage. 

BY THE EDITOR. 

That Sheol, Shaal, Shaul, or Saul, which is the 
same word in a different dress, should signify a place 
of never-ending torment, requires proof. Inference, 
unless the grounds of inference are immutable, amounts 
to little. Where the importance of inference relates 
to the greatest possible consequence, analogy must be 
obvious, and the conclusion irresistible, ere we can 






118 HELLOLPGY. 

give it credence. We hardly need repeat that Said, 
the very word in question, was a common name in 
Judea where the import of the word Sheol was well 
understood. Let us then ask, if the word conveyed 
to the minds of the Jewish people, the same idea 
which is attached to it in modern days, v\*ould they 
have adopted it as an appellative ? Has any one pro- 
fessing the Christian name, and believing in the hor- 
rid doctrine of endless misery, ever brought his child 
to the altar, requesting it to be named Hell ? You 
must answer, instinctively, No. But do we learn by 
the scripture, that those to whom were committed the 
oracles of God, believed in a future, interminable 
punishment ? Not a word in scripture appears like 
it. Nay, the use of the term in most, if not all in- 
stances, utterly forbids the idea. The meaning in 
nearly every instance, is fixed by the context, and the 
known usages of the people. None but a mad man, 
or an infuriated fanatic, would contend that the patri- 
arch Jacob expected to go to his son Joseph in the 
hell of modern Christendom ; nor would any man in 
iiis senses contend, that Job would request to be hid- 
den in the Christian hell, from the wrath of Jehovah. 
For, if the wrath of God be exhibited in more dread- 
fuls terrors out of hell, than in it, those who would 
drive sinners into heaven by the terrors of hell, have 
not given the most terrible description with which they 
are threatened in scripture. 

But a previous question remains to be settled. Did 
the Jews believe in the immortality of the spirit ? 
The question is important. If we have no evidence 
that they did, the use of any words found in their 
scriptures cannot be a foundation for giving credit to 
the dogma of endless misery. Suffering may be com- 
mensurate with existence, but cannot exceed it. 
Ergo — those who did not believe in endless existence, 
cannot believe in endless torment. Consciousness is 



i 



HELLOLOGY. 119 

necessary to suffering, or more philosophically speak- 
ing, to misery. But on what authority are we to pro- 
nounce that the Jews believed in a future, fixed state, 
of interminable duration ? It is utterly opposed by 
their history, and even the Pharisees who are suppo- 
sed to have believed in such a state of being, are far 
from stating the fact. That they believed in the Py- 
thagorean philosophy is pretty evident. That allu- 
sion is made to this philosophy in the ninth chapter of 
John, no less than twice, can easily be seen. " And 
as Jesus passed by, he saw a man that was blind from 
his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Mas- 
ter, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was 
born blind ?'' Is it possible to refer this simple ques- 
tion to any other source than the Pythagorean philos- 
ophy ? How could the disciples, or any others, sup- 
pose that nonentity could offend ? The question sug- 
gests the answer. They supposed a previous state of 
existence, in which crimes were committed, which 
were to be punished in this state of existence. And 
the question most evidently includes the principle of 
the transmigration of spirits into different bodies. 
True, indeed, the idea of identity is necessary to un- 
derstand the justice of punishing a spirit and body in 
connexion, the latter of which had no previous exis- 
tence, and could not therefore stand connected in a 
relation to the spirit which ought to render it liable to 
misery, as a consequence of transgression. Some 
might indeed object, that to punish a spirit which had 
previously animated another body, but had lost its 
consciousnesses not according to our ideas of divine 
rectitude. And the argument is strengthened, when 
we reflect, that no human being, has the least recollec- 
tion of any previous state of being. But, perhaps the 
fallacy of all this singular jargon is supposed to be 
justified by the doctrine of original sin, as holden by 
our doctors of divinity. We grant, indeed, that the 



120 HELL6LOGY. 

moderns arc not a whit behind their progenitors in 
certain points of mystery, but we are not therefore 
ready to justify the follies of one generation, by the 
fashionable frailties of another. 

But the reply of the self-righteous Pharisees, to him 
who had received his sight by the instrumentality of 
Jesus, leaves no doubt that the metempsychosis, more 
properly than the resurrection, was the principle held 
by the Pharisees. , " Thou wast altogether born in 
sins, and dost thou teach us ?" That this is a proof 
of the prevalence of the Pythagorean philosophy, is 
gathered from the preceding question of Christ's dis- 
ciples. If they gave credit to such fancies, no wonder 
those who were less conversant with the master of as- 
semblies, should support so unfounded a theorem. 
But the supposition is strengthened, when we perceive 
that the Scribes and Sadducees, who had equal oppor- 
tunities with the Pharisees, believed in neither angel 
nor spirit. This is certainly strong circumstantial 
evidence, that neither the law nor the prophets reveal 
a future state of being But the fact may easily be 
settled. If the law, or the prophetical writings, inti- 
mated in undisguised language, a state of immortal be- 
ing beyond the grave, how can we maintain the in- 
tegrity of that scripture which declares that .Tesiis 
brought life and immortality to light through the 
gospel ? When others can settle this question to their 
own satisfaction, we shall be-inducedto hear with com- 
placency, any arguments which they may use for our 
conversion. At present, we believe that a state of im- 
mortality was not known under the Mosaic dispensa- 
tion. Our readers are in possession of the facts from 
which we thus judge. To their own good sense we 
leave the subject. 

Hades, is most evidently the word used by the 
Seventy in translating the Hebrew word Sheol. By 
what means the sense of a passage is altered in a fair 



HELLOLOGY. 121 

translation, is not distinctly perceived. That transla- 
tors miss the sense, and that the corresponding terms 
in the translation do not always convey the exact idea 
of the original, is very evident. But every man of 
sense must see that the errors of any version cannot 
sanctify palpable contradictions, nor can a wrested 
meaning, however long it may retain its empire, im- 
pair the sense of the original. Who for instance, will 
contend for the common version of Mat. 26 : 45, 46 ? 
" Sleep on now, and take your rest : behold the hour 
is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the 
hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going." Who 
does not see the utter inconsistency of this ver- 
sion with common sense, and the whole context ? If 
the corresponding text, Mark 14 : 41, 42, imports the 
same contradiction in terms, an account of the same 
scene by Luke, 22 : 46, redeems the subject from re- 
proach, by a fair exhibition of the sense, as connected 
with the subject, and the context. " And he said un- 
to them, Why sleep ye ? rise and pray, lest ye enter 
into temptation." 

As the true sense of this subject is so obvious that 
few can miss it, we beseech those who believe in the 
infallibility of translators, who were under the influ- 
ence of king-craft and priest-craft, to pause one mo- 
ment, before they draw a conclusion on any important 
subject, based on the supposed meaning of any word 
or particular phrase ; and more especially, when the 
frequent use of the term is such that a very different 
sense must often be given, or the connexion left in ut- 
ter confusion. 

We have already seen in a former section that 
though hades does not exactly correspond with Sheol, 
yet the difference is of little importance. That nei- 
ther word is used to express the idea which long use 
has attached to the term hell, as used among Chris- 
tians generally, is certainly obvious, by the examples 

11 



122 HELLOLOGY. 

already given. The etymology of the words makes 
this not less apparent, than their use at and before the 
time when they were used in scripture. Added to this, 
the very singular facility with which the translators 
accommodated the version to their views, by a render- 
ing of the words so variously as to hide the meaning 
of the original by dexterous management, and we 
have a clue to the means by which the doctrine of 
endless torments came into general use. But men of 
research have explored this mystery of iniquity — the 
orthodox are assisting to pull down their own babel — 
and the Light of Truth shall yet shine into the dark 
corners of the earth, and liberate the minds which 
bave long been chained in the thraldom of ignorance 
and superstition. 

To all this, some may reply, that in at least one place 
in the New-Testament, the word hell is most evident- 
ly used to denote a place of interminable misery. 
The parable of the Rich man and Lazarus is that to 
which we have alluded, which shall be cautiously ex- 
amined. That the parable indicates misery, or suffer- 
ing, is granted ; but that this is to be endless, or in a 
future state of being, is neither said, nor intimated. 
Let those who suppose this parable to uphold the ten- 
et of never-ceasing misery, put their finger on the 
phrase which supports this idea. We have in vain 
looked for it in this passage, and we trust others will 
Iook,for it with no better success. 

If we mistake not, the Catholics look upon this para- 
ble as a proof of purgatorial purification. But will 
Protestants admit this ? But why not ? It certainly 
comes as near the proof of purgatory, as of an endless 
hell. But it may be well for us to recollect that ortho- 
dox critics give up hades, as a place of punishment in 
a future state. The ignorant and the obstinate cling 
to hell with such pertinacity, that it really seems they 
are as unwilling to part with the idea of a state of end- 



HELLOLOGY. 12S 

less misery, as a state of bliss, from whatever word it 
may be rendered. Hence, the word hell, wherever it 
occurs, and in whatever connexions, to their imagina- 
tion, always conveys the same idea. But let us reject 
all preconceived opinions, and carefully examine the 
chapter in which the doctrine of unmerciful punish- 
ment is supposed to be taught, for if not taught in this 
passage, it finds no resting place in the New-Testament* 
If the passage really inculcates the doctrine for which 
it is used, it is clearly a history of facts, and hell is 
thus determined to be a place of punishment in a fu- 
ture state of being. We shall now if you please, sit 
down to the task in good earnest, examine it as plain 
matter of history, and endeavour to canvass it fairly 
and amply as the opportunity will permit. That this 
may be done in the most acceptable manner, and ena- 
ble every reader to judge for himself at the moment 
of reading, we shall cite the whole in connexion, com- 
mencing Luke 16 : 19. 

" There was a certain Rich man, which was clothed 
in purple and fine linen ? and fared sumptuously every 
day : and there was a Certain beggar named Lazarus, 
which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring 
to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich 
man's table : moreover, the dogs came and licked his 
sores*. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and 
was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom : the 
rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he 
lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeing Abra- 
ham afar off, and Lazarus in hi§ bosom. And he cri- 
ed, and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me, and 
send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in 
water, and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in 
this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that 
thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and 
likewise Lazarus evil things ; but now he is comforted, 
and thou art tormented. And besides all this ?j be- 



124 HELLOLOGY: 

tween us and you is a great gulf fixed ; so that they 
which would pass from hence to you cannot ; neither 
can they pass to us that zoould come from thence. 
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
wouldst send him to my father's house ; for I have five 
brethren ; that he may testify unto them, lest they also 
come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto 
him, They have Moses and the prophets ; let them 
hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham ; but 
if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one 
rose from the dead," 

Having by this time, carefully examined this as his- 
torical fact, what information have we obtained? We 
have read of a rich man, well fed and well clothed, a 
circumstance of frequent occurrence, even in our 
day. We also learn that a beggar, full of sores, was 
laid at his gate, who desired to be fed with the crumbs 
which fell from the rich man's table. Both these men 
died. The one, even without the rite of sepulture, 
as we can perceive, was carried by angels, and de- 
posited in the bosom of Abraham, the grand Patriarch 
of the Jewish nation. A very singulary«^, if it be 
one, to say the least. The rich man was buried, and 
lifting up his eves in torment, saw the polluted carcass 
of Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. He recognized 
the venerable Patriarch as his Father, but not Lazarus 
as a brother, nor did he request an act of favour to 
be performed throughthim as such. His susceptibili- 
ty of suffering through the medium of his bodily organs 
appears not to have experienced any change — it seems 
to be still as subject to the influence of material ob- 
jects as at any former period. His complaint of suf- 
fering applies particularly to the tongue, by the use of 
which, however, he appears to converse with much 
freedom. The modesty of his request is most certain- 



HELLOLOGY* 125 

ly as unobtrusive as was that of Lazarus on a former 
occasion ; he merely solicits that the beggar might be 
sent to dip the tip of his finger in water, for the pur- 
pose of cooling his tongue. Astonishing that he should 
make this request ! Why ask for a mere drop ! and 
where was the water to be obtained ! in hell ? — But 
the Patriarch appears to be taking his ease within hail- 
ing distance, and on the same level too, for all the 
verbs used indicate motion in a horizontal direction. 
Not the least intimation is given that one is up, while 
the other is down. — But let us notice the reply. Sou, 
remember.. ..remember what ? that he had been " a 
sensualist, a hard hearted, unfeeling glutton ! M No, not 
a word like this. What then ? Son, remember, that 
thou in thy life time [he is dead now] receivedst thy 
good things. Very well, and were his good things ill- 
gotten gain ? Had he extorted under false representa- 
tions — or under the convenient mask of long faces and 
long prayers, the last penny from the needy ? Had he 
taken the last mite from u the widow weeping over 
"her helpless orphans" to replenish the treasury of the 
LORD ? No such abominations are laid to his charge, 
nor is s.'vestige of crime alleged against him* It is 
not even said of him, 

" And for a mantle large and lang, 
He cloak'd him in religion." 

His character and conduct, for any thing which ap- 
pears to the contrary, were unexceptionable. He re- 
ceived his good things from the author of all good, 
and not one intimation is offered, that he had either 
misimproved, or enjoyed them thanklessly. But one. 
trait of character is discoverable in the whole affair, . 
and that is kindness to others, even in the midst of his 
sufferings. This differs entirely from the orthodox 
representation of the damned in hell* 

11* 



126 HELLOLOGY. 

The former situation of Lazarus is brought in con- 
trast with his present state. He had in his life time, 
received his evil things, but not through the means of 
the rich man. He is dead, and " the dead know not 
any thing," but still, he is comforted. No eulogy is 
pronounced on the piety of his former life, no self-aratu- 
lation on account of the discriminating grace which 
selected him as a monument of God's sparing mercy, 
while others no better than himself, were consigned to 
realms of hopeless wo, for the glory of God's vindic- 
tive justice ; nor do we learn that paeans of praise 
were sung for joy, while contemplating the damnation 
of the sufferer. The comforted and the tormented had 
changed conditions. One received consolation ; the 
other was miserable. 

For any thing which appears to the contrary, the 
dead retained the use of all their faculties, with the 
identity of their bodily organs, as completely as at any 
former period of their existence. The flame in which 
the rich man was enveloped, seems not to have impair- 
ed, either his vision or his speech. He recognized 
both Abraham and Lazarus ; they seem to converse 
with as much propriety as people do on this mundane 
sphere ; nor were the pains of the sufferer sufficient to 
interrupt a regular succession of ideas, nor the usual 
mode of expression. 

But another consideration presses hard on the sub- 
ject. Not a word is heard of the resurrection, nor of 
a general judgment. The transition appears to be 
instantaneous. No invitation — Come ye blessed ! No 
sentence — Depart ye cursed! No reason given for the 
contrast which was both sudden and great, between 
their present and former cirmumstances, save the im- 
plied equality which was effected by the change. 

But a reason is given why Lazarus could not. fulfil 
the request for relief. A great gulf was fixed between 
them. This appears to have escaped the notice of 




HELLOLOGY. 127 

the petitioner. Abraham was not " higher than heav- 
en,T that the rich man should inquire, " what shall / 
do!'' Nor was he, in comparison with Abraham, 
u deeper than hell." The gulf was fixed, so that they 
who would go hence to you cannot ! Marvellous in- 
deed ! what, were any disposed to pass from the Abra- 
hamic, the comforting portion of hades, or hell, to the 
opposite side of the gulf? So the language would im- 
port, as clearly as that the rich, or more properly re- 
duced man, would exchange places with Lazarus. 
This indeed he did not ask. But was the rich man 
alone, or " in hell with the damned?" If this be pure 
history, determine for yourself, why he should rather 
say /am tormented, than zve are ? 

But the knowledge of this gulf forecloses all inter- 
cession in his own behalf. He now solicits that Laz- 
arus may be sent to his father '$ house, to his five breth- 
ren, of course to the children of Abraham ! For what 
end does he request this ? " That he may testify unto 
them." For what purpose ? " Lest they also come 
into this place of torment." What was to be the bur- 
den of his testimony ? The same which Moses and 
other prophets testified ; for Abraham says, " They 
have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them." 
What then was their testimony ? Did they in one in- 
stance threaten an endless hell, to the chosen, but stiff- 
necked Israelites? I answered unhesitatingly, NO. 
They testified of the coming of the Just One, the Mes- 
siah, the Shiloh, the desire of all nations, who should 
finish transgression, and bring sin to an end. Abra- 
ham is therefore very properly represented as saying, 
" If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.'" 
How clearly this was verified in its fair and scriptural 
import, will be seen in its proper place. 

We have now traced the subject in Its leading points, 
if not to the extent of its various ramifications, and we 



128 HELLOLOGY 

have seen that as a whole, it has no possible claims to 
stand in the rank of realities. The first part, indeed, 
which describes the characteristics of the two men, 
would by itself require no illustration to make it ap- 
pear as a history of facts ; thus to lead the mind un- 
consciously into a train of ideas by the use of easy si- 
militudes, is the very object of parables, and is the 
mode by which wise men in all ages have imparted 
useful information. But what shall we say of the re- 
mainder of this chapter ? Does it agree, or rather, does 
it not disagree, not only with the testimony of our sen- 
ses, but with the most obviously literal declarations of 
scripture — and that too without exhibiting as a conse- 
quent moral, either warnings or encouragements ? 
Considered literally, it is a perfect blank. Thus idly 
amusing the populace with sounding brass, was not 
the method in which our Master spent his precious 
time. 

Those who still pertinaciously adhere to this portion 
of scripture as a relation of facts, may perhaps fancy 
with Tertullian, " the shape and corporeal lineaments" 
of departed spirits, and that they " do yet preserve 
the shape or character of the body to which they 
were united ;" but why not also adopt the reveries of 
Pythagoras, on the metmpsychosis, or transmigration 
of souls? Each boasts antiquity for its origin^ and 
each may claim equal authority from scripture. Thes- 
pesias, indeed, " returning to life, represents the col- 
our of souls, and saith there be scars and ulcers of 
their passions left upon them, by which they are dis- 
cerned." But have you any belief in all this subli- 
mated nonsense ? 

But a circumstance of no inconsiderable importance 
in this discussion, settles the character of the passage 
beyond controversy. THie fact to which I allude is 
quoted by Mr. Balfour from the celebrated Dr. Whit- 
by, on this passage, which I give you verbatim. " We 



BELLOLOGY. 129 

fed this very parable* in the Gemara Babylonicum, 
whence it is citfed by Mr. Sheringham, in the preface 
to his Joma." Now the very circumstance of finding 
it primarily used as a parable, in a work written long 
anterior to the Christian dispensation, and its repeti- 
tion by our Saviour without the least intimation of 
change from a figurative to a literal construction of 
the language — is very conclusive evidence that he used 
it as a parable, and in no other sense. What was its 
use as a figurative representation will be seen in the 
sequel. But when such critics as Campbell, Dodd- 
ridge, Chapman, and other commentators, are com- 
pelled to consider this subject as entirely figurative, 
the conclusion that their judgment is founded on irre- 
sistible testimony is obvious, it is inevitable. But the 
strength of this is increased, when we recollect that 
this is the only place in the New-Testament, where 
HADES, here rendered hell, is connected with pun- 
ishment ! In allusion to this fact we conceive the pres- 
ent subject particularly interesting. 

You are already aware that hades, and not Gehen- 
na, is the word rendered hell in the passage before us. 
Of this word Dr. Campbell says : " In my judgment 
it ought never in scripture to be rendered hell, at least 
in the sense in which that word is now understood by 
stians." This orthodox Doctor gave this opinion 
with the most convincing data. 

Notwithstanding the labour already expended on 
the negative side of this subject, we shall state a rea- 
son sometimes urged in favour of a literal interpreta- 
tion of the passage, which shall be fearlessly met, and 
/airly investigated. The objection arises from the 
fact, that it is not introduced as a parable. This ob- 
jection is easily repelled by a direct appeal to the com- 
mencement of other parables. To begin then with 
this very chapter. It commences with the parable of 
the Unjust Steward. To the use of this as a parable. 



130 HELLOLOGY. 

we think no one objects. But where is its imagery I 
It is as bare of figure, as is the skeleton tree of foliage, 
in the depth of winter. Nothing connected with it, 
but looks more like fact than figure, if we except its 
application, and even that is ambiguous. Not so with 
the parable under consideration. Here the imagery 
is brilliant, and the scope extensive. But we will 
now call your attention to the comparison. u There 
was a certain rich man, which, " is the introduction to 
the first. " There was a certain rich man, whic^'' is 
the introduction to the one under examination. What 
a remarkable coincidence. Not a word is said of 
either as a parable — their commencement is the same. 
The parable under discussion is full of imagery, and 
as history, is equally full of improbabilities, not to add 
impossibilities — the other, destitute of imagery, is 
taken for granted as parable, nemine contradicente ; 
and why ? It does not militate against any preconceiv- 
ed opinions. Were no other fact preceptible, the 
very reason which is objected to the one as figure, is 
demonstrably evident as the other is concerned. But 
though this is considered as an entire answer to the 
objection now stated, you may compare at your leis- 
ure, Mat. 13: 44, 45 — 47 — 49, where you may find 
parables introduced in as abrupt a manner as the one 
under consideration. See also Mat. 20 : 1. the para- 
ble of the labourers ; also Mat. 25 : 1. respecting the 
ten virgins, and that of the talents, v. 14. with others 
ad libitum. Of those in Mat. 13.. it may indeed be 
urged, that " All these things spake Jesus to the mul- 
titude in parables, and without a parable, spake he 
not unto them." But you ought to perceive that this 
includes in the most ample form, the very subject un- 
der examination. The multitude was contradistin- 
guished from the disciples ; this was spoken to the 
Pharisees ; ergo, to the multitude. It is then a para- 
ble. 



KELLOLOGY. 131 

Having already shown, and, as we trust conclusively, 
that a literal understanding of this subject involves the 
most palpable absurdities, we shall now turn your at- 
tention to what is believed to be its true meaning. The 
rich man will now be considered as a type of the Jew- 
ish nation, and Lazarus as an emblem of the Gentile 
world. That this is the import of the passage, we 
shall now endeavour to make obvious. 

The parable represents these two as contradistin- 
guished each from the other, — the one rich, and the 
other poor. That this relates to spiritual privileges, 
in which the Gentiles were far behind the Jews, is 
a position which is soon illustrate^ But perhaps 
we may first inquire into the propriety of using the 
singular number when speaking of the whole peo- 
ple. Let us then recur to scripture authority for a 
precedent. Deut. 32 : 9, to close of the 15th verse. 

" For the Lord's portion is his people ; Jacob is 
the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert 
land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; he led him 
about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of 
his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth 
over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh 
them, beareth them on her wings ; So the Lord alone 
did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that 
he might eat the increase of the fields ; and he made 
him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the 
flinty ipck : butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with 
fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and 
goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat ; and thou didst 
drink the pure blood of the grape. But Jeshurun 
waxed fat, and kicked : thou art waxen fat, thou art 
grown thick, thou art covered with fatness ; then he 
forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the 
Rock of his salvation."" 



132 HELLOLOGY. 

Here we observe, not only that the Lord's people 
are spoken of collectively in the singular number, but 
that they are represented as rich, even in the good 
things of this life through the favour of our heavenly 
father. Nor is this more evident than that he was 
equally rich in spirituals. Paul, in answer to the ques- 
tion — What advantage then hath the Jew? replies, 
— "Much, every way; chiefly, because that unto 
them were committed the oracles of God." And 
again ; 

u Who are Israelites ; to whom pertaineth the adop- 
tion, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving 
of the law, andihe service of God, and the promises ; 
whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the 
flesh, Christ came." 

The clothing of the rich man, thus considered, is 
described, Exod. 27 : 2, 4, 5. 

" And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron 
thy brother, for glory and for beauty. And these are 
the garments which they shall make ; a breastplate, 
and an ephod, and a robe, and abroidered coat, a mi- 
tre, and a girdle ; and they shail make holy garments 
for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may min- 
ister unto me in the priest's office. And they shall 
lake gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and line 
linen.'' 

Thus was the rich man, the high priest and repre- 
sentative of the Jewish people, clothed in purple and 
fine linen ; and that both he and the peopl# fared 
sumptuously every day, we may learn by the daily sac- 
rifices, and more specially by the peculiar demonstra- 
tions of divine favour which are expressed as follows : 
" And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and 
will be their God." What nation, then, was like that 
nation, " whose God was the Lord ?" We see the 
propriety of representing the Jewish nation as a «nan, 
a rich man. His clothing and his fare are described 



HELLOLOGY. 133 

in the scriptures of truth, and to this the parabolic 
language of our Saviour agrees. But the life of this 
privileged man closes. The law, which had been a 
lamp to his feet and a lantern to his path, had been 
made void by vain traditions. He had neglected at- 
tendance on those oracles of divine wisdom, which had 
been his life, and he is now dead. The legal dispen- 
sation had ceased. Having misimproved his talent, 
the kingdom of God was taken from him and given to 
another, bringing forth the fruits thereof. He was 
consequently shut out into utter darkness, where is 
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Blindness in part had 
now happened to Israel, and shall continue until the 
fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. He was there- 
fore buried in the darkness expressed by an apostle — 
Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and 
bow down their back alway. He now saw Abraham 
afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Thus was the pre- 
diction of the Saviour fulfilled, recorded Luke 13: 28, 
29, 30. 

t; There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, 
when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and 
all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you your- 
selves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, 
and from the west, and from the north, and from the 
south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, 
behold, there are last which shall be first, and there 
are first which shall be last." 

It was at the close of the Mosiac dispensation, when 
the master of the house, the high priest of our profes- 
sion, had shut the door on the Jews, and opened it to 
the Gentiles, that those which had been the first, and 
highly favoured people, became the last ; and the Gen- 
tiles, who had been the last, were in the same sense 
made the first. The Gentiles came from the four quar- 
ters of the earth, and found life in the dispensation of 
12 



134 HELLOLOGY. 

the Gospel, the same gospel which had been preached 
to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 

We have before said, that this is the only passage in 
the New-Testament, in which hades is connected with 
punishment. You will recollect that the original term 
signifies unqualified darkness. If this is a parable, 
hell is here used to signify . mental darkness, as it lite- 
rally signifies physical darkness. Thus does the figure 
completely correspond with the fact. Hence it is 
obvious, that as the Jewish nation looked to the right- 
eousness of the ritual law, which consisted of carnal 
ordinances, so the rich man in the parable calls to his 
father after the flesh for assistance. Having rejected 
the counsel of God against themselves, and refused 
to submit to the rule of a s-uifering Messiah, they judg- 
ed themselves unworthy of eternal life, and the angels, 
or ministers of the gospel, turned to the Gentiles, who 
were thus brought into the life of the gospel, the faith 
of Abraham. H 

To exhibit the force of Abraham's closing reply to 
the rich man, u If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither would they be persuaded though 
one rose from the dead," let us refer to John 5 : 45, 
46. 

" Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father : 
there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom 
ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have 
believed me : for he wrote of me. 1 ' 

But what says Paul to the Romans on this subject ? 

" For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet 
have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; Even 
so have these also now not believed, that through your 
mercy they °.lso may obtain mercy." 

It hence appears obvious, that the unbelief of the 
Jews, and the faith of the Gentiles, were simultane- 
ous. The one died to all which distinguished them as 
rich in their life time — the other died to their idola- 



HELLOLOGY. 1S5 

frous worship, and to their ignorance of the true God, 
and no wonder the Apostles exclaimed in astonish- 
ment, " Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted 
repentance unto life." Thus the rich man died, and 
was buried — the poor man needed no burial, he came 
to life — the life of the new dispensation. 

In speaking of this passage literally, notice was taken 
of the entire want of character from which to infer 
the cause of the sudden change of circumstances re- 
lated of these two men. As a figure, it is truly charac- 
teristic of the relative situation of the two grand divis- 
ions of men. Not only a were the Jews highly privi- 
leged as a people, but their exclusive claim to these 
privileges was so deeply rooted, that even the apostles 
of our Lord, had strong doubts of the propriety of 
teaching the way of life to the Gentiles. Nay, the Sa- 
viour of men, while under the Mosaic dispensation, 
afforded strong evidence of this exclusive spirit. His 
disciples were forbidden to preach to the Gentiles, 
and he declared himself not sent, but to the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel. True, after his resurrection, 
the commission was extended to every creature ; yet 
before his crucifixion, he declared it not meet to give 
the children's bread to dogs, alluding to the case of 
the Gentile woman. Here then is a case in point. 
The woman answered — " Truth Lord, yet the dogs 
eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table." 
What a singular coincidence ! The Jews, and even 
Christ, at that time, considered the Gentiles as dogs. 

That the Gentiles, who are here represented in the 
character of a beggar, were poor in the same sense in 
which the Jews were rich, will hardly be disputed, 
when reference is made to Eph. 2 : 11,12. 

" Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past 
Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision 
by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh 
made by hands: that at that time ye were without 



136 HELLOLOGY. 

Christ, "being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, 
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having 
no hope, and without God in the world." 

The poor man is represented as outside the rich 
man's gate. " Without are dogs. 15 lie is also said to 
be full of sores. If being strangers from the cove- 
nants of promise, and without hope, does not suffi- 
ciently point out the moral ulcers of the Gentile 
world, we know not in what language to describe it. 
But Isa. 1 : 5, 6, in full to the purpose. 

" The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he 
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of 
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 
Why should ye be stricken any more ? ye will revolt 
more and more. The whole head is sick, and the 
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even 
unto the head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds 
and bruises, and putrefying sores : they had not been 
closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oint- 
ment." 

That the exclusive spirit of the Jewish nation was 
highly provoked by any intimation of granting their 
privileges to the Gentile world, is manifested by their 
conduct to the Messiah, on his hinting the change 
which was about to take place between these two 
grand divisions of men. They thrust him out of the 
city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their 
city was built, that they might cast him down head- 
long. W T hat, did the Spirit of Pharisaic pride, which 
says, " Stand by thyself — I am holier than thou ;" 
prompt them to murder ? It did — nor is this a solitary 
instance. 

" And he said unto me, depart : for I will send thee 
far hence unto the Gentiles, And they gave him au- 
dience unto this zvord, and then lifted up their voices, 
and said, away with such a fellow from the earth : for 
it is not fit that he should live.*" 



HELLOLOGY. TST 

But perhaps you are ready to inquire, What is meant 
by the dogs licking his sores ? we conceive it points 
to the instructions of the heathen philosophers, which 
might palliate, but could not heal, their moral diseases. 
" Life and immortality were brought to light through 
the gospel." The death of the poor man was the 
close of his dispensation of misery. The life time 
in which he had received his evil things terminated, 
and he was brought by the angels, or messengers, or 
ministers of the gospel, into the glorious life, and 
light, and liberty of the new dispensation. He came 
from darkness into the light of divine truth, he was 
not buried. The rich man died to the light, and was 
buried in darkness as profound as that from which 
Abraham was taken — he was therefore buried — he is 
buried still. He listened not to the voice which said. 
Turn ye, turn ye, O house of Israel, for why will ye 
die ? But the Deliverer shall come out of Zion, and 
turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The vision of 
the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 : will yet be fulfilled. 

" Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones 
are the whole house of Israel : behold, they say, Our 
bones are dried, and our hope is lost ; we are cut off 
for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto 
them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my peo- 
ple, I will open your graves, and cause you to come 
up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of 
Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when 
I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought 
you out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, 
and ye shall live ; and I shall place you in your own 
land : then shall ye know that I the Lord have spo- 
ken it saith the Lord.'' 

That the primitive preachers of the gospel were 
termed angels, will not admit of disputation, and that 
they were commissioned to turn the Gentiles from a 
12* 



133 HELLOLOGY. 

state of mental darkness and moral degradation, 
to the light of the gospel, is evident from Acts 36 : 17, 
18. 

a Delivering thee from the people, and from the 
Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their 
eyes, and to turn them from darkness to liglit, and 
from the power of Satan unto God, that they may re- 
ceive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them 
which are sanctified by faith which is in me." 

Perhaps you are by this time ready to inquire what 
is meant by the great gulf, which completely preclu- 
ded the possibility of passing to and fro. I presume 
it means no more than the determination of God, who 
hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they 
should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto 
this day. This prediction will most surely be ful- 
filled, and nothing but the necessary time to bring in 
the fulness of the Gentiles is now wanting to close the 
glorious promises respecting this people. Do you learn 
that this can never be passed ? on what page of scrip- 
ture do you find it written. The Jews were to bow 
down their back alway, but a deliverance is neverthe- 
less promised. That which cannot be performed to- 
day, may be accomplished to-morrow. That which 
was broken from its own olive tree can be grafFed in 
again, and so all Israel shall be saved, and the top 
stone of salvation shall be brought forth with joy, cry- 
ing grace, grace. Christ said to his disciples, as he 
did to the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come — but the 
question of a disciple, elicited an answer of peace. 
But instances of this description are so common, that 
you will hardly need a repetition in this place. 

You may also be ready to ask, who were the five 
brethren of the rich man. Whether the number five 
has here any special reference to any definite portion 
of men, is not perhaps certain. But it is certain, that 
as the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were count- 



HELLOLOGY. 139 

ed but one, so the ten tribes would, in the same ratio, 
number live. That the Samaritans, or ten tribes, 
were acknowledged by the Jews as children of Abra- 
ham, is evident, notwithstanding they had no dealings 
together. And that they kit them nearer of kin, and 
nearer in feeling, than others called Gentiles, is more 
than probable. And as the ten tribes never did op- 
pose the gospel as did the Jews, so it might be said, 
they had not come into the place of torment into 
which unbelief has brought the Jews. Hence the 
whole is easy of understanding. The rich man did 
not consider Lazarus as his brother — but he saw him 
in a situation as he supposed, to render assistance. 
The perplexity of the Jews was great. They were 
tributary to the Romans, and continually expected a 
conquering Messiah, who should rescue them from this 
state of vassalage. The time of his coming, was at the 
advent of Christ, and hence they would take him by 
force and make him a king ; hence also, the populace 
cried, *Hosanna to the son of David — and the same 
populace cried, crucify him — his blood be on us and 
on our children. 

But after all which has been said on this citation, 
some may yet inquire, how comes it about, that so 
many learned men still persist in using this text as 
proof of interminable misery ? We answer, first, by 
inquiring whether circumstantial testimony, and that 
very equivocal, is sufficient to outweigh the phalanx 
of facts which guard this passage from perversion ? 
If you answer, Yes — you are prepared to believe in 
the infallibility of Popes, and Synods, and Councils. 
If you reply, No — the question is answered, and the 
subject is put to rest. 

But again — If the tenet is true, merely because ma- 
ny believe and teach it, why not always go with the 
current of public opinion ? On this principle, the Jews 
were justified in their persecution of Christ and his 



140 HELLOLOGY, 

disciples, and you would thus commend the maxim. 
that the voice of the people is the voice of God. 
Numbers would thus sanctify error, and that may be 
orthodox to-day which will be the most damnable her- 
esy to-morrow. On this principle too, the multitude 
might say to the few who think — Hitherto shalt thou 
go, and no further. Every advance which has been 
made in knowledge would thus be an advance in error, 
and we might be persuaded to retrace our steps from 
civilization to the most heathen barbarism. 

We have now looked again at the words sheol and 
hades, and at their use in the scriptures. We have 
taken one instance of the use of the latter, and that 
the strongest instance in the New Testament, and on 
examination, found it wanting, as a support for the 
vulgar but popular error of endless misery. Scrip* 
ture, reason, analogy, are all against it, as a term ex- 
pressing a place of punishment posterior to this mode 
of existence. We find it used figuratively as an em- 
blem of the shutting up of the Jews from the privile- 
ges of the gospel kingdom, and of the entrance of the 
Gentiles into this kingdom. It is thus, that it fulfils 
the predictions of the Bible, and alfords strong reason 
for trusting in the fulfilment of every other prophecy 
yet to be accomplished. 

In confirmation of what has been advanced on this 
passage, we shall quote from Dr. Campbell, with some 
remarks on the quotation from Mr. Balfour's Inquiry. 
Of the word ados he says — 

" Here it is represented as a place of punishment. 
The rich man is said to be tormented there in the 
midst of flames. These things will deserve to be ex- 
amined narrowly. It is plain, that in the Old Testa- 
ment, the most profound silence is observed in regard 
to the state of the deceased, their joys or sorrows, 
happiness or misery. It is represented to us rather 
by negative qualities than by positive, by its silence, 



HELLOLOGY. 141 

its darkness, its being inaccessible, unless by preter- 
natural means, to the living, and their ignorance about 
it. Thus much in general seems always to have been 
presumed concerning it, that it is not a state of activi- 
ty adapted for exertion, or indeed for the accomplish- 
ment of any important purpose, good or bad. In 
most respects, however, there was a resemblance in 
their notions on this subject, to those of the most an- 
cient heathen. 

" But the opinions neither of Hebrews nor of heath- 
en, remained invariably the same. And from the time 
of the captivity, more especially from the time of the 
subjection of the Jews, first to the Macedonian empire, 
and afterwards to the Roman ; as they had a closer in- 
tercourse with Pagans, they insensibly imbibed many 
of their sentiments, particularly on those subjects 
whereon their law was silent, and wherein, by conse- 
quence, they considered themselves as at greater free- 
dom. On this subject of a future state, we find a con- 
siderable difference in the popular opinions of the 
Jews in our Saviour's time, from those which prevail- 
ed in the days of the ancient prophets. As both 
Greeks and Romans had adopted the notion, that the 
ghosts of the departed were susceptible both of enjoy- 
ment and of suffering, they were led to suppose a sort 
of retribution in that state, for their merit or demerit 
in the present. The Jews did not indeed adopt the 
Pagan fables on this subject, nor did they express them- 
selves entirely in the same manner ; but the general 
train of thinking in both came pretty much to coin- 
cide. The Greek hades they found well adapted to 
express the Hebrew sheol. This they came to con- 
ceive as including different sorts of habitations for 
ghosts of different characters. And though they did 
not receive the terms Elysium or Elysian fields, as 
suitable appellations for the regions peopled by good 
spirits* they took instead of them, as better adapted to 



142 HELLOLOGY. 

their own theology, the garden of Eden, or Paradise, a 
name originally Persian, by which the word answering 
to garden, especially when applied to Eden, had com- 
monly been rendered by the Seventy. To denote the 
same state, they sometimes used the phrase Abraham's 
bosom, a metaphor borrowed from the manner in 
which they reclined at meals. 1 ' 

On the above Mr. Balfour remarks as follows : — 
"How did the Jews in our Lord's day, come to 
consider Hades as a place of punishme'nt for the 
wicked ? That a change in their opinion on this sub- 
ject, had taken place from what is contained in the Old 
Testament is evident; for he says, — "on this sub- 
ject of a future state, we find a considerable differ- 
ence in the popular opinions of the Jews in our Sav- 
iour's time, from those which prevailed in the days of 
the ancient prophets." Well, how did this change in 
their opinions taken place ? Was it by some new rev- 
elation which God made to them on this subject ? No 
such thing is stated by Dr. Campbell, but the reverse. 
He thus accounts for the change of their opinions. 
" But the opinions neither of Hebrews nor of heath- 
en, remained invariably the same. And from the time 
of the captivity, more especially from the time of the 
subjection of the Jews, first to the Macedonian em- 
pire, and afterwards to the Roman ; as they had a 
closer intercourse with Pagans, they insensibly imbib- 
ed many of their sentiments, particularly on those 
subjects whereon their law was silent, and wherein, 
by consequence, they considered, themselves as at 
greater freedom. As both Greeks and Romans had 
adopted the notion, that the ghosts of the deceased 
were susceptible both of enjoyment and of suffering, 
they were led to suppose a sort of retribution in that 
state, for their merit or demerit in the present. The 
Jews did not indeed adopt the Pagan fables on this 
subject, nor did they express themselves entirely in 



HELLOLOGY. 143 

the same manner ; but their general train of thinking 
in both came pretty much to coincide.'' — This state- 
ment is surely too plain to be misunderstood. How 
much plainer could he have told us, that a punish- 
ment in Hades was a mere heathen notion, which the 
Jews learned from their intercourse with them ? Could 
this have been more obvious had he said so in as ma- 
ny words ? We presume no man will deny this. He 
not only declares that neither Sheol nor Hades is 
used in Scripture to express a place of punishment, 
but he shows, that the Pagan fables teach it, and the 
Jews learned it from them. What are we then to 
think, when this is the account of the origin of the 
doctrine of hell torments by one of its professed 
friends ? Had this statement been given by a profess- 
ed Universalist, the cry would be raised that it was 
a mere fabrication of his own, in support of his sys- 
tem. But no, this is the statement of the learned, and 
acute Dr. Campbell, late principal of Marischal col- 
lege, Aberdeen, who lived and died, a celebrated the- 
ologian in the church of Scotland. It is notorious, 
that in this quotation he declares, that the Jews de- 
rived these opinions from their intercourse with the 
heathen. Where they got those opinions he does not 
inform us. Had they been from divine revelation, the 
heathen ought to have learned them from the Jews. 
But here the matter is reversed. The heathen it seems 
anticipated divine revelation, as to the doctrine of 
punishment in Hades. They revealed it to the Jews 
by means of their fables. The Jews it is said, — " did 
not adopt their fables, nor did they express them- 
selves entirely in the same manner, but their general 
train of thinking came pretty much to coincide." That 
man must be very dull, who does not learn from this, 
that the doctrine of torment in Hades, had its origin 
in heathenism, and, that the Jews were ignorant of it, 
until they learned it from the heathen. — From all this, 



i44 HELLOLOGY. 

will it be easy for any one to resist the conviction,* 
that to this popular opinion, which the Jews had im- 
bibed from their intercourse with the heathen, our 
Lord alluded in his parable, of the rich man and Laz* 
arus ? Such were the popular notions of the Jews in 
our Lord's day; and to what else could he allude? 
The Old Testament, as we have seen, taught no such 
doctrine, and in the parable it is not introduced as a 
new revelation to the world. It is merely brought in 
as a part of its imagery, and that without asserting its 
truth, or exposing the erroneous notion which peo- 
ple had imbibed. He no more attempts to correct 
this Pagan notion, than the common opinion, that 
satan had bound a woman eighteen years with an in- 
firmity. 

" Dr. Campbell further declares, that though the 
Jews did not adopt the Pagan fables on this subject, 
yet their train of thinking pretty much coincided with 
theirs. " The Greek Hades they found well adapted 
to express the Hebrew Sheol. This they came to 
conceive as including different sorts of habitations for 
ghosts of different characters." They did not adopt 
the terms Elysium, or EJysian fields, to express the 
regions of good spirits, but he says, "they do not seem 
to have declined the use of the word Tartarus 1 ' to ex- 
press the unhappy situation of the wicked in an inter- 
mediate state.'' 

Le Clerc, as qnoted by Rev. Mr. Balfour, gives 
us the Pagan notion of punishment in a future world, 
in the following words : — 

" Though enough has been said, showing that pun- 
ishment in Hades was a heathen notion, and not sanc- 
tioned by divine revelation, it may be of some use to 
see what were the views entertained by the ancient 
heathen about Hades and Tartarus. M. Le Cierc, in 
his Religion of the Ancient Greeks, p. 147 — 154. thus 
writes: — " In general, the doctrine of a future life has 



HELLOLOGY. 145 

been adopted by all nations, at least by all those that 
deserve to be cited as examples. Legislators consid- 
ered it as the most effectual curb for restraining the 
passions of men, and they have employed every ar- 
gument to establish this salutary doctrine, as we may 
be convinced by attending to the descriptions which 
the ancients have left us of hell. 

" This word signified among them the residence of 
souls. Thither, after death, they repaired in crowds 
to receive remuneration for their deeds. Minos sat 
as judge, and as the names were drawn out of the fatal 
urn, he distributed to each his merited punishment or 
reward. Pluto, seated on a throne of ebony, presided 
over the infernal regions ; because, as we have al- 
ready observed, in the symbolical region of the an- 
cients, part of which was dedicated to the worship of 
the stars, winter was the night of nature, and because 
the sun at that time took the name of King of the 
Shades. For this reason Pluto, who represented the 
sun, makes so important a figure in mysteries destined 
to describe the empire of the dead. The gloomy 
region was situated at an immense distance, far be- 
yond the limits of this universe. According to the 
author of the Theogony, [Hesiod, Theog. v. 720.] ' as 
far as the heaven is distant from the earth, so far is the 
earth removed from the dark abyss. A mass of iron, 
falling from the top of the starry heavens, would take 
nine days and nine nights before it reached the surface 
of the earth ; and it would require the same time in 
falling from thence to Tartarus,' the place destined for 
the punishment of the wicked. 

" This frightful abode was said to be twice as deep 
as it is distant from the brilliant summit of Olympus. 
It was surrounded by a triple wall, it was bathed by 
the flaming waters of Cocytus and of Phlegethon, and 
towers of iron guarded the entrance. The cruel 
Tysiphone watched night and day at the gate, armeo 



H6 HELLOLOGY. 

with serpents, which she shook over the heads of the 
guilty. Their groans, the doleful cries, mixed with 
the sound of their stripes, cause the wide abyss to 
resound. There are for ever shut up the impious Ti- 
tans, and those no less audacious mortals who dared 
to resist the divinity ; Tityus, Ixion, Pirithous, and 
the impious Salmoneous. Perjury, adultery, incest, 
and parricide, are likewise punished ; and those whose 
life has been sullied with odious crimes ; those who 
have not respected the ties of blood, who have waged 
unjust wars, who have sold their country ; those who 
have dared to commit enormous wickedness, and en- 
joyed the fruit of their crimes, are all consigned to 
the most cruel torments. 

" A less rigorous fate was reserved for him who had 
been guilty of smaller offences, or who, having com- 
mitted crimes, had given signs of repentance. It was 
necessary that he should be punished till he had ex- 
piated them ; but when he had been in some sort re- 
generated and cleansed from the impurities contract- 
ed by guiljt, he was admitted into the abodes of the 
blessed. 

" That place of delights was admirably contrasted 
with the dismal regions of Tartarus. The ground 
sparkled with gold and precious stones ; its fertile 
plains were watered with a multitude of never-failing; 
streams, which maintained a perpetual verdure. The 
flowers of spring were mixed with the rich fruits of 
autumn. A sky for ever serene and unclouded, a sun 
and stars from which incessantly flowed streams of 
living light; and, in fine, a'! the objects which the 
most brilliant imagination could conceive, were col- 
lected to embellish those happy plains. They were 
inhabited by virtuous men, the friends of justice, who 
had served their country, and cultivated the useful 
arts ; they tasted a pleasure which nothing could em- 
bitter ; and the remembrance of the virtues they had 



HELLOLOGY. 147 

practised on earth was for them a continual source of 
felicity. In the midst of the unmingled pleasures they 
enjoyed, they exercised themselves in the occupations 
which during life had obtained them the gratitude of 
their countrymen. The legislator contemplated the 
principles of that august and eternal law of which he 
had before but a glimpse ; and the assembly of the 
just that surrounded him, were attentive to his instruc- 
tions. The sight of arms, even in the bosom of peace 
and tranquillity, recalled to the remembrance of the 
hero those battles which he had fought in defence of 
his country ; while the poet, who had consecrated his 
harp to the worship of the gods, celebrated anew, in 
celestial strains, the power and benignity of the im- 
mortals. 

" We may conceive what impression these images 
would make on the mind, when unceasingly presented 
to the eyes from earliest infancy. It is not to be 
doubted, that if the hope of felicity unclouded leads 
to virtue, the idea of endless punishment must have a 
still stronger influence on the conduct. The religion 
of the ancients, which to us appears of so light a na- 
ture that we are apt to believe its only end was to flat- 
ter the senses, yet employed the most proper means 
for restraining the outrageous multitude. It alarmed 
them on alt sides with the most frightful repesentations. 
A poet of antiquity [Lucretius, lib. 5.] paints, in the 
strongest colours, that continual terror which takes pos- 
session of the human heart, which disturbs and poisons 
the pleasures of life, and which in every part of the 
earth has erected temples for the purpose of concilia- 
ting the gods. Plato, in the beginning of the first book 
of his Republic, represents an old man seized with 
fear at the approach of death, and full of inquietude 
with regard to objects that never occupy the season 
of health. Then it is, says he, that we reflect on our 
crimes, on the injustice we have committed, and that 



148 HELLOLOGY. 

often, in our agitation, we start in our sleep, and are 
frightened like children. As soon as some were found 
among the ancients who had overcome these fears, it 
was pretended that such had never existed among 
them : we might as reasonably judge of the public 
belief at this day, by the opinions in which some mod- 
ern writers have been pleased to indulge themselves. 
The testiomy of those of antiquity who opposed the 
prejudices of their times, their very attempt to dissi- 
pate those fears, and to turn them into ridicule, rather 
proves how deeply they were rooted. Observe with 
what solicitude Lucretius every where endeavours to 
burst the bonds of religion, and to fortify his readers 
against the threatenings of eternal punishment. The 
observation of Juvenal, so often cited, that nobody in 
his day believed in the fables of hell, is that of an en- 
lightened mind, which takes no part in the opinions 
of the vulgar. The same thing is to be said of what 
we read in Cicero, and in some other writers, on the 
same subject : and when Virgil exclaims, ' happy the 
man that can tread under foot inexorable Destiny, and 
the noise of devouring Acheron,' he indicates, in a man- 
ner sufficiently precise, that it was the province of phi- 
losophy alone to shake off the yoke of custom, riveted 
by education. 

u Those who were unable to conquer these vain ter- 
rors, found consolations of a different kind. Religion 
stretched forth her kind hand to encourage their hopes, 
and to relieve their despondency. When remorse had 
brought back, within her pale, an unfortunate wan- 
derer from the paths of justice, she informed him that, 
by a true confession of his guilt, and sincere repent- 
ance, forgiveness was to be obtained. With this view 
expiatory sacrifices were instituted, by means of which 
the guilty expected to participate in the happiness of 
the just" 



HELLOLOGY. 14* 

To rebut what has been said, by orthodox commen- 
tators, in the present section, proof of the reverse 
must be given, and all the researches of these able 
scholars must be given to the winds. 



SECTION XV. 

Further examination of the subject. Appeal to the Scriptures 

relative to the first transgression. 

BY THE EDITOR. 

We learn by the preceding section, that the use to 
which hades has been applied, is of heathen origin, to 
which the Catholic tenet of an intermediate state, suit- 
ed to purgatorial discipline, also owes its parentage. 
Orthodox writers of much learning and diligence, are 
given as authority, whose testimony as to matters of 
iact will hardly be disputed. They give up every 
word, as expressive of future misery, save Gehenna. 
But do a majority of Christian readers, know the rad 
ical difference between the various words which are 
rendered hell in our common translation ? Most cer- 
tainly not. The clergy, who ought, and many of 
whom do know better, seldom, if ever, attempt to set 
their hearers right respecting these things. The rea- 
son is very obvious. Once give them a clue to the 
truth, and they will be less ready to receive the dog- 
ma of endless misery, which needs all their ignorance 
and prejudice for its support. Exhibit the ignorance, 
or malversations of the translators, and implicit faith 
in the traditions of the fathers, will vanish. Hence, 
those who have done so much for the cause of truth, 
while it militates so apparently, against their own 
prejudices, deserve the greater praise. 

But, if Sheol, or Hades, originally signified a place 
of wretchedness in a future state of being, is it not 
most astonishing, that we never read of its creation ? 
13* 



150 HELLOLOGV. 

If it is in the universe of God, it was either designed 
from eternity, or was an accident, growing out of cir- 
cumstances unseen by Jehovah when he brought the 
material earth on which we live from chaos into order. 
But we neither hear of its creation, nor of its exist- 
ence, from the records of truth. No threatening of 
this sort is recorded in the Old Testament. " In the 
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," con- 
tains no intimation of this sort. Nor does any word, 
or circumstance, relating to the first transgression, or 
its effects, produce any thing like it. No awful denun- 
ciation of implacable vengeance, and never-ending 
torment, are recorded as being fulminated by Almigh- 
ty wrath : — No fear of such a consequence is record- 
ed as the result of disobedience. — Adam is represent- 
ed as being ashamed, and gave this as a reason for hi- 
ding himself. Shame was the consequence of guilt. 
But, were he in dread of ceaseless misery, could he 
so deliberately have made his excuse? and had the 
threatening been as our modern clergy represent it, is 
it within the scope of probabilities, that he was so lit- 
tle concerned as to the result ? But suppose it should 
be objected that he did not fully understand the threat- 
ening, let us inquire, if the Father of our spirits 
could give a law to man, involving such awful conse- 
quences, while man was totally ignorant of the effects 
which must follow the breach of that law ? Impossi- 
ble we can come to such a conclusion, without char- 
ging God with deliberate malice, and the most abomi- 
nable deception. But the event shows that this was 
not the case. All, on the part of Jehovah, exhibits 
the utmost benignity. " Adam, where art thou ?" 
The answer proved him guilty, for shame was recog- 
nized as the legitimate result of transgression ? No : 
" Cursed is the ground for thy sake." But was not 
the man cursed also ? No ; and how was the ground 
cursed ? It was to produce thorns and thistles. The 



HELLOLOGY. 151 

man was to eat bread in the sweat of his face. Ne- 
cessity was laid on him to labour, and the consequence 
was to follow — how long ? u Until thou return to 
the ground — for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou 
return.'" Here was all the penalty threatened, com- 
prised in two words — labour and shame. But we 
may be told, and indeed we are told — that " all man- 
kind by the fall, lost commonion with God ;'' let us 
ask, however, where is the proof ? We read nothing 
like it here, for the fall of man is not once mentioned 
in the Bible. Nor yet do we learn from that book, 
that man lost communion with his Maker. Indeed, 
the very reverse is proved in the history of the primi- 
tive offence. But we are also met by the declara- 
tion, that the first offence against the law subjects all 
men to the u wrath and curse of God," and that from 
the same authority. But is this worthy of more cred- 
it than the former ? Where is this related ? The or- 
thodox catechism contains it, but the warrant is not 
found in the book of revelation. Nothing like it is 
stated as the consequence. 

Perhaps the objector will grant that he cannot find 
all this in so many words, and may be willing to waive 
these declarations as untenable. But others of equal 
consequence may be started. He may presume we 
will grant, that in consequence of sin, we are all 
" made liable to all the miseries of this life, and to 
death itself." No, we are not ready to allow this 
neither. Many of the miseries of this life, have no 
possible connexion with transgression. Our consti- 
tution renders us liable to many evils, in no way con- 
nected with the subject. Those nerves, and that fine 
sensibility of feeling, which were the inlets to the 
most exquisite pleasure, make us susceptible of the 
most excrutiating torture, aside from the evils of mor- 
al pollution. Nor is the latter position a whit more 
tenable. That man was made immortal, incorrupti- 



152 HELLOLOGY. 

ble, and by moral degradation became the subject of 
dissolution, is a most palpable solecism. His cor- 
ruptibility proves the reverse. Endless life, in this 
state of being, was never promised as the consequence 
of obedience. The very expression, until thou re- 
turn to the dust, is strong corroborative testimony, 
that the original plan was precisely that which the 
event displays. His mortality is a demonstration of the 
fact, that he was made liable to dissolution. We grant 
an apostle inform us, that death passed upon all men, 
as all have sinned ; but the same writer informs us, 
that to be carnally minded is death. But besides 
this, the context shows, that he alluded to moral, and 
not to natural death. 

But one objection still remains. We are told, that 
all men, in consequence of sin, are " made liable to 
the pains of hell for ever. 5 ' Now we doubt this ; 
first, because we do not find it in the oracles of God ; 
and, secondly, because David, on whom the pains of 
hell had taken hold, declares that God had delivered 
his soul from the lowest hell. But as the word sheol, 
hades, or hell, no where occurs in the history of the 
first transgression, those who wish to maintain the 
principle for which they contend from the use of the 
word, will be under the necessity of seeking for it 
elsewhere 



HELLOLOGY. 
SECTION V. 



loo 



Quotations from Dr. Campbell relative to Sheol and Hade?, and 
Mr. Balfour's deductions from them. Further remarks by the 
Editor. 

On a subject so long and so generally misunderstood, 
and of such immense importance, no person can ra- 
tionably be blamed forgiving line upon line, and pre- 
cept upon precept. The most close, the most ample 
examination of the subject, even to prolixity, is evi- 
dently erring on the safe side. If truth should al- 
ways be the object of research, the greater the sub- 
ject, the more importunate should we be to find it. 
If the scriptures have been made to speak a language 
foreign from their true meaning — if they have been 
wrested from their original meaning, either through 
ignorance or design, the sooner, and the plainer, these 
errors are exploded, the better. We shall now quote 
a few extracts from Dr. Campbell, who being in the 
orthodox ranks, and an accomplished scholar, would 
be careful not to state as facts, any thing to discredit 
his own system of faith, but on the most undoubted 
authority. Speaking of hades, he says — 

" As to the word a&js, which occurs in eleven pla- 
ces of the New Testament, and is rendered hell in all, 
except one, where it is translated grave, it is quite 
common in the classical authors, arid frequently used 
by the Seventy, in the translation of the Old Testa- 
ment. In my judgment it ought never in Scripture to 
be rendered hell, at least in the sense wherein that 
word is now universally understood by Christians. 
— In the Old Testament, the corresponding word is 
Sheol, which signifies the state of the dead in genera], 
without regard to thegoodness or badness of the per- 
sons, their happiness or misery. In translating that 
word, the Seventy have almost invariably used a<%. 
This word is also used sometimes in rendering th? 



154 HELLOLOGY. 

nearly synonymous words or phrases bor and abnt bor, 
the pit, and stones of the pit, tsal moth, the shades of 
death, dumeh, silence. The stale is always repre- 
sented under those figures which suggest something 
dreadful, dark and silent, about which the most prying 
eye, and listening ear, can acquire no information. 
The term a(5r)g Hades, is well adapted to express this 
idea. It was written anciently, as we learn from the 
poets^for what is called the poetic, is nothing but 
the ancient dialect) ab privativo et video, and signifies 
obscure, hidden,- invisible. To this the word Hell, 
in its primitive signification, perfectly corresponded. 
For, at first, it denoted only what was secret or con- 
cealed. The word is found with little variation of 
form, and precisely in the same meaning, in all the 
Teutonic dialects. 1 ' 

On the above quotation, Mr. Balfour offers the fol- 
lowing remarks : — 

I have made this long quotation from Dr. Campbell 
at the outset of my remarks for several reasons. 

It shows that Sheol of the Old Testament, and 
Hades of the New, both translated by our English 
word hell, do not signify a place of endless misery for 
the wicked, but simply the state of the dead, without 
regard to the goodness or badness of the persons, their 
happiness or misery. It follows of course, that 
wherever those two words are used in Scripture, 
though translated by the word hell, we ought not to 
understand such a place of misery to be meant by the 
inspired writers. Inattention to this has led to a mis- 
understanding of many parts both of the Old and New 
Testaments. 

It establishes also that our English word hell, in its 
primitive signification, perfectly corresponded to 
Hades and Sheol, and did not, as it now does, signify 
a place of endless misery. It denoted only what was 
secret or concealed. Thi* we shall show more fully 



HELLOLOGY. 155 

afterwards. What we wish to be noticed here, is, 
that the people generally have connected the idea of 
endless misery with the word hell, but it is evident 
that it is a very false association. It is beyond all 
controversy, that the word hell is changed from its 
original signification to express the idea. 

It is also obvious from the above quotation, and 
from other authors which might be quoted, that Ge- 
henna is the word which is supposed to express the 
idea of a place of endless misery. The correctness 
of this opinion we shall attempt to consider after- 
wards. At present it need only be observed, that if 
the opinion be correct, it is somewhat surprising that 
the English language had no word to express such a 
place of misery, but the word hell must assume a new 
sense to accommodate it with a name. 

I shall only add in regard to the statements, made 
in the above quotation, that they are not opinions, 
broached by a Universalist, which he found to be ne- 
cessary, in support of his system. No : they are the 
statements of Dr. Campbell, who was not a Univer- 
salist. Nor are they his own individual singular 
opinions, but are now admitted as correct byJearned 
orthodox critics and commentators. 

If the doctrine of eternal misery was not revealed 
under the Old Testament dispensation, it follows, that 
it, as well as life and immortality, was brought to 
light by the Gospel. If it be allowed that this doc- 
trine was not revealed under the Mosaic dispensation, 
it is very evident that persons could not be moved 
with fear, to avoid a punishment, concerning which 
they had no information. If it be said, that it was 
revealed, we wish to be informed in what part of the 
Old Testament this information is to be found. 

It seems then to be a conceded point, that neither 
Sheol of the Old Testament, nor Hades of the New t 
so often translated hell, means, as is commonly be- 



156 IIELLOLOGY. 

lieved, the place of eternal punishment for the wick* 
ed. From the concessions made in the foregoing quo- 
tations, most people would deem it proper for me to 
decline the labour which Dr. Campbell calls endless, 
to illustrate by an enumeration of all the passages in 
both Testatments, that those words do not signify this 
place of punishment for the wicked. Unwilling, 
however, to take this matter on trust, I have submit- 
ted to this endless labour, and shall proceed to bring 
forward all those passages. 

The word Sheol in the Hebrew of the Old Testa- 
ment, occurs, sixty-four times. It is rendered by our 
translators, three times pit, twenty-nine times grave. 
and thirty-two times hell" 

We cannot forbear the gratification of noticing, in 
this place, the high desert of Mr. Balfour, in submit- 
ting to the astonishing labour, which the celebrated 
Dr. Campbell termed endless. Few men have either 
the ability or the means ; and fewer still the courage, 
and the persevering diligence, which this Inquiry ex- 
hibits. It is a specimen of fair and logical reasoning, 
of which the greatest man whoever breathed our at- 
mosphere need not be ashamed. It is a chain of facts 
and corresponding deductions, from which is no ap- 
peal. The premises are undoubted, and the conclu- 
sion irresistible. After requesting the reader to exam- 
ine carefully the remarks which precede this para- 
graph, we would call his attention to' the following, 
from the same author. 

" Let us attend to the texts in which it is translated 
pit. In Numb. 7 : 30, 33, it occurs twice. Speaking 
of Korah and his company, they are said to go down, 
" quick into the pit.*' What is said in these two ver- 
ses, is explained by the earth opening her mouth and 
swallowing them up. Had Sheol been translated hell 
here, as in other places, according to the common ac- 
ceptation of this word, Korah and his company weni 



HELLOLOGY. 157 

down alive, soul and body, to the place of eternal mis- 
ery. But this would be contrary to common belief, 
for it is allowed, that men's bodies do not go there un- 
til the resurrection. All that seems to be meant in 
this account is, that they were swallowed up alive, as 
whole cities have been by an earthquake, and that 
without any reference to their eternal condition. 
This, I presume, is the view most people take of this 
judgment of God upon those men. Job 17 : 16, is 
the only other text in which Sheol is rendered pit. It 
is said, speaking of men, — " they shall go down to the 
bars of the pit." What is meant, is explained in the 
very next words, — " when our rest together is in the 
dust. 1 ' As it would be a mere waste of time to make 
any further remarks to show that Sheol, translated pit 
in these texts, docs not refer to a place of eternal mis- 
ery, let us bring to view all the texts in which this word 
is translated grave. The first three places then, in 
which it occurs, are, Gen. 35 : 35. ; 43 : 38, and 45 : 
29. noticed already by Dr. Campbell in the above 
quotation. Had Sheol been translated hell in these 
texts, as it is in many others, Joseph would be repre- 
sented as in hell, and that his father Jacob expected 
soon to follow him to the same place. In like man- 
ner, it would make Hezekiah say, " I shall go to the 
gates of hell." And to declare, — u hell cannot praise 
thee." See Isai. 38 : 10,18. I may just notice here, 
that, if those good men did not go to hell, it would be 
difficult;.. to prove from the Old Testament, that Sheol, 
or hell, was understood to mean a place of eternal 
misery for the wicked. But further, let Sheol be 
translated hell, instead of grave in the following texts, 
and we think all will allow, that the idea of a place 
of future misery, was not attached to this word by 
the Old Testament writers. Thus translated, it would 
make Job say, chap. 17 : 13, — " if I wait, hell is 
mine house." And to pray, chap. 14 : 13, — " O that 
14 



153 HELLOLOGY. 

that thou wouldst hide me in hell.'' It would also 
make David say, Psalm 83 : 3. — " My life draweth 
nigh unto hell." And to complain, Ps. 6 : 5, — " in 
hell who shall give thee thanks. 1 ' 

After a critical discussion, Mr. B. proceeds — 
" David says, Psalm 31 : 17, — " let the wicked be 
ashamed and let them be silent in hell.'' In some of 
the preceding texts we read of persons being brought 
up from it. Thus, 1 Sam. 3 : 6, — " the Lord killeth 
and maketh alive : he bringeth down to hell and 
bringeth up. 1 ' And again, Psalm 30 : 3, — " O Lord, 
thou hast brought up my soul from hell." But what 
this means is explained in the next words, — " thou 
hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the 
pit." In these passages the language is evidently fig- 
urative. It is evident, that by hell could not be meant 
a place of endless misery, nor could these passages 
be understood literally ; for surely David, nor no one 
else, was ever brought down to such a place, and af- 
terwards brought up from it. We find Job says, ch. 
7 : 9, — " he that goeth down to hell shall come up no 
more," which contradicts what was said in these pas- 
sages about persons being brought up from hell. But 
what Job means, is plain from the next words, " he 
shall no more return to his house. 11 But further, if 
Sheol was translated hell instead of grave in the fol- 
lowing texts, it would make the sacred writers repre- 
sent all men as going ^o hell. Thus it is said, Psalm 
69 : 48, — " what man is he that livetb and shall not 
see death ? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of 
hell ?" Notwithstanding this, David says, Psalm 49 : 
15, — u But God will redeem my soul from the power 
of hell. 11 By comparing these two last texts, it is evi- 
dent that "hand of hell, 1 ' and " power of hell," 
mean the same thing. We have also a proof, that 
Sheol did not mean a place of eternal misery, but the 
state of the dead ; for death and Sheol arc words used 



HELLOLOGY. 159 

to express the same idea. Besides, we know for cer- 
tainty, that no man can deliver himself from the pow- 
er of death, or hand of the grave ; but surely all men 
do not go to hell, or a place of eternal misery ? 
Again : if Sheol is translated hell instead of grave, it 
makes Solomon say, Eccles. 9 : 10, — " there is no 
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in hell 
whither thou goest." But are there none of these 
things in the place of eternal misery ? To answer this 
in the negative, would be to contradict common opin- 
ion on the subject. But this can be affirmed concern- 
ing the state of the dead, and shows that Solomon, by 
Sheol, did not understand a place of endless misery, 
but this state, or as Job calls it, " the house appoint- 
ed for all the living." Here " there is no work, nor 
device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom.'' 

" But further ; if Sheol indeed means hell, in the 
common sense of the word, very strange statements 
are given in the following passages. It is said, Prov. 
1 : 12, — "Let us swallow them up alive as hell." 
And in Job 24 ; 19, it is added, — " drouth and heat 
consume the snow waters , so doth hell those who 
have sinned." Again, Psalm 49 : 14, — " like sheep 
they are laid in hell ; death shall feed on them ; and 
the upright shall have dominion over them in the morn- 
ing ; and their beauty shall consume in hell from their 
dwelling. 1 ' And, Psalm 141 : 7, — our bones are 
scattered at hell's mouth as when one cutteth and 
cleaveth wood." Now, I ask every candid man, 
whether all these statements do not perfectly agree 
with understanding Sheol to mean the grave, but are 
contrary to truth, to understand them of hell, or a 
place of eternal misery. Such an idea does not ap- 
pear to have entered the minds of the Old Testament 
writers. Does any man believe that people's bones are 
scattered at the mouth of the place of eternal misery 7 



160 HELLOLOGY. 

and docs this place consume persons in if as drought 
and heat consume the snow waters ? 

It is not generally noticed hy most readers of the 
Bible, that our translators have rendered Shcol both 
grave and hell in the same passage, and speaking of the 
same persons. An example of this occurs in Ezek. 
31: 15, 18. In the 15th verse it is rendered grave, 
and in verses 16th and 17th it is twice rendered helh 
Besides, observe, that what is called grave and hell in 
versesloth, 16thand 17th verses, is called in verse 
18th, u the nether parts of the earth." — Another 
example we have of this in Isai. 14: 3 — 24. In this 
pas-age, too long for quotation, is given a descrip- 
tion of the fall of the king of Babylon. Any our who 
reads it, may see that things are stated which forbid us 
thinking, that by Sheol, translated both hell and 
grave, a place of eternal misery was intended. But 
it is well known that detached parts of this passage 
have been so applied. The persons represented as 
in hell, are said to be moved at the coming o( some 
other sinners to the same place of misery ; and assay- 
ing to them — M Art thou also become weak as we ? 
Art thou become like unto us ?" But the passage 
needs onlv be read by any man of ordinary sense to 
convince him of the absurdity of such an interpreta- 
tion. But further : in Prov. 30 : 16. Sheol, or hell, 
is represented as never satisfied. And in ("ant. 8: 6. 
jealousy is said to be " cruel as Sheol, or hell." All 
this may be said of the grave, but how it could be said 
of a place of eternal misery, 1 cannot perceive. 1 lad 
our translators rendered Sheol hell in the following 
passage, it would have given such a plausible aspect to 
it, as meaning a place of misery, that it would not 
have been easy to convince many people to the con- 
trary. Thus it is said, Job 21 : 13. speaking of the 
wicked, — u they spend their days in wealth, and in a 
moment go down to hell. " Had this been done, peo- 
ple would have quoted it as decisive in proof of the 



IIELLOLOGY. 161 

doctrine of eternal misery. Why it was not rendered 
here hell instead of grave, I know not, but sure I am, 
it is as strong as any of the texts in which it is render- 
ed hell, to prove this doctrine. 

The last passage in which Sheol is translated grave,, 
is Hosea 13: 14, — "I will ransom them from the 
power of 'the grave. I will redeem them from death ; 
O death I will be thy plagues ; O grave, or hell, I will 
be thy destruction." On this text I beg leave to make 
the following remarks. 

1st, If Sheol, translated grave, and in other places 
hell, means a place of eternal misery, it is evident 
from this passage, that men arc to be ransomed from 
it, and it destroyed. " 1 will ransom them from the 
power of hell," and, " O hell, I will be thy destruc- 
tion." It will be easily perceived, that those who be- 
lieve Sheol to be the place of endless misery, ought to 
give this up, for if they do not, they must admit, that 
neither the place nor its punishment is to be of eternal 
duration. If Sheol, translated pit, grave, and hell, is 
relinquished, as referring to such a place, it follows, 
that no such doctrine as this was known under the Old 
Testament, as taught by the inspired writers. Dr. 
Campbell, and others, as we have seen in the foregoing 
extracts, give up Sheol, and contend that Gehenna is 
the place of eternal punishment for the wicked. 

2d, In the passage under consideration, there seems 
to be a double kind of proof, that Sheol does not 
signify hell, but the grave or state of the dead. The 
first clause of the verse, — " I will ransom them from 
the power of the grave," is explained by the second, 
" I will redeem them from death.' ' Death, in this last 
clause, answers to, or is synonymous with, grave in 
the first. But again, it is equally evident, that death 
in the third clause, is equivalent to grave in the fourth. 
This kind of parallelism is common in the Old Tes- 
tament ; attention to which is of importance in under^ 
14* 



162 HELLOLOGY.. 

standing the precise import of many expressions there 
used. As this text is quoted in the New Testament, 
and must again be brought to view, we shall for the 
present dismiss it. 

These are now all the passages fairly before us, in 
which Sheol is rendered grave in the common ver- 
sion. Some may be disposed to ask, — why did not 
our translators render Sheol hell in all these texts, as 
they have done in many others, which we shall pres- 
ently introduce ? The answer to this question is of 
easy solution. It would have been absurd, nay, shock- 
ing to all our best feelings, to have rendered Sheol 
hell in many of the above passages. For example, it 
would not do to represent Joseph in hell, or a place 
of endless misery. No one could bear to hear, that 
Jacob expected soon to go to the same place. And 
surely it would never be believed that Job ever pray- 
ed, — "O that thou wouldest hide me in hell.'" In 
short, it never could be admitted, that David, Heze- 
kiah, and others, could have spoken about Sheol as 
they did, if they attached the same ideas to it as we do 
to the word hell. 

"Had our translators rendered Sheol uniformly by 
the words pit, grave, or hell, we would have been less 
liable to mistaken views on this subject. Let us, for 
example, suppose that they had always translated it 
hell. We, in reading our Bibles, must have seen from 
the context of the places, from the persons spoken 
about, and other circumstances, that a place of eter- 
nal punishment could not be meant by this word. 
The Old Testament saints expected to go to Sheol, 
yea, prayed for it ; but what should we think, to hear 
Christians now speaking about hell, as they did about 
Sheol ? For example, would it not astonish us to hear 
a professed saint, pray, — O that thou wouldest hide 
me in hell, or in the place of endless misery? But 
why should it astonish us, if they meant by Sheol. 



HELLOLOGY. 1G3 

what we now do by the word hell ? Take only a sin- 
gle example of this. If Jacob meant by Sheol what 
we now mean by the word hell, why ought the follow- 
ing statement to surprise us ? — A Christian loses a son, 
and refuses to be comforted by his family. He says, 
" I will go down to the place of endless misery unto my 
son mourning.'' Concerning another beloved child 
he says, — "if mischief befal him by the way in which 
ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sor- 
row to the place of endless misery." This would be 
strange language in the mouth of a Christian in our day. 
But it ought not, if we indeed contend, that Sheol or 
hell, in the Old Testament, had any reference to such 
a place of misery. 

The attention of the reader is now particularly turn- 
ed to the passages in which the words Sheol and 
Hades are translated hell in our common version, 
The careful examiner will notice, that the translators 
have frequently put grave in the margin, where hell 
is found in the text, thus strengthening the arguments 
already used for the exposition of these words. Why 
they have done this, is not very problematical. Of 
these instances Mr. Balfour thus speaks : — 

" Who, for example, does not perceive this in Psalm 
1G: 10. "for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." 
This is quoted, Acts 2: and applied to the resurrection 
of our Lord. It may surely be asked, — was our Lord 
ever in hell, the place of eternal misery ? When he 
said, " Father into thy hands I commend my spirit, " 
did his father send him to hell ? This, I presume, will 
not be pretended. Where, it may be said then, was 
our Lord's soul not left ? He was not left in the state 
of the dead, or in Sheol or Hades, which are only two 
names for the same place. The Lord did not suffer 
his Holy One to see corruption, but raised him again 
from the dead. 



164 HELLOLOGY. 

" But again : was Jonah in hell, when he said, chap. 
2 : 2, — u out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou 
hearedst my voice?'' I have always understood, that 
in hell prayers were unavailing. But if Jonah was 
in hell, this is not true, for he not only prayed' there, 
but was heard and delivered out of it. It deserves no- 
tice, that our translators, Gen. 37 : 35. aware that it 
would not do to send Jacob to hell, translate Sheol 
grave ; and here, thinking it rather strange to repre- 
sent Jonah as praying in hell, they put grave in the 
margin. — But again ; are we to conclude, when it is 
said, Psalm 55 : 1 5, — " let death seize upon them, and 
let them go down quick into hell," that David prayed 
that the persons of whom he spoke, might go down 
quick, or alive, into a place of endless misery ? As 
this was not a prayer very suitable for the man after 
God's own heart, we find our translators again put 
grave in the margin. 

" Having seen from Psalm 16 : 10. that the Saviour 
is represented as having been in hell, we need not be 
much surprised at what is said in the following pas- 
sages, which refer to him. Thus, Psalm 18: 5. it 
is said, — " the sorrows of hell compassed me about ; 
the snares of death prevented me." See also 2 Sam. 
22 : 6. and Psalm 116 : 3. where the same language 
is used. In this text, " sorrows of hell," and '* snares 
of death," are convertible expressions, and seem evi- 
dently to refer to the Saviour's suiFerings. I am aware, 
that it hath been held as an opinion, that our Lord 
actually went to hell, and surFered its pains for a 
season. This opinion was probably founded on these 
passages. In the present day, I presume the man is 
not to be found, who would risk his reputation in de- 
fending it. 

That Sheol, translated hell, means the grave, or 
state of the dead, is, I think, obvious. Thus, Solo- 
mon, speaking of a lewd woman, says, Prov. 7 : 27, 



HELLOLOCY. 165 

— "her house is the way to hell ;" which he immedi- 
ately explains, by adding, " going down to the cham- 
bers of death." This is, if possible, still more evi- 
dent from chap. 5 : 5, — " her feet go down to death,' 1 
which is explained by the next words, — u her steps 
take hold on hell.'" The same remarks apply to Prov. 
23 : 13, 14. — as the state of the dead was concealed 
from the eyes, or knowledge of all the living, its being 
known to God, is stated as a proof of his perfection in 
knowledge. Thus it is said, Job 26 : 6, — " hell is 
naked before him, and destruction hath no covering." 
And again, Prov. 45 : 11. " hell and destruction are 
before the Lord, how much more then the hearts of 
the sons of men." 

u Sheol, whether translated pit, grave, or hell, is rep* 
resented as below, beneath, and at a great depth. 
Persons are always spoken of as going down to it. 
It is contrasted as to depth, with heaven for height, 
the extent of both being alike unknown. Thus it is 
said, Prov. 15 : 24, — " the way of life is above to the 
wise, that they may depart from hell beneath.'' And, 
— " it is high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? deep- 
er than hell ; what canst thou know ?'' Job 11:8. 
See also, Amos 9 : 2. And Psalm 1 39 : 8. where sim- 
ilar language occurrs. See also Dr. Campbell's dis- 
sertation quoted above, on all these texts. But not 
only is Sheol, hell, represented as a great depth, but 
we read of the lowest hell. Thus .in Deut. 32 : 22. 
it is said, — " for a fire is kindled in mine anger and 
shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the 
earth with her increase, and set on fire the founda- 
tions of the mountains." Here, as in other places, 
for hell in the text, our translators put grave in the 
margin. Should we understand hell in this text, to 
mean the place of eternal misery, it is implied, that 
there is a low, and lower, as well as lowest place of 
misery for the wicked. Accordingly, it has been 



166 HELLOLOGY. 

common to assign to notoriously wicked men the low- 
est hell. But whatever sense we put on the phrase, 
u the lowest hell,'' it is the same place of which Da- 
vid thus speaks, Psalm 86: 13, — "for great is thy 
mercy towards me : and thou hast delivered my soul 
from the lowest hell." Was David ever in the low- 
est place of eternal misery ? But here again our 
translators for hell in the text put grave in the mar- 
gin. The fact is, the language in the above texts is 
used figuratively, and it would be absurd to interpret 
it literally. See the foregoing dissertation of Dr. 
Campbell in proof of this. — When we read of the 
lowest hell, which implies a low, and a lower, is not 
this mode of speaking used as a contrast to the ex- 
pression highest heavens, which implies a high and a 
higher heavens ? We read also of the third heavens, 
which clearly implies two more. I would therefore 
suggest it for consideration, if the expression " lowest 
hell," did not originate, from the dead being some- 
times cast into pits, the depth of which was as little 
known, as the height of the highest heavens. When 
the common honours were paid the dead, they were 
put in caves, or vaults, or decently interred under the 
earth. But when persons were deemed unworthy of 
funeral honors, were they not cast into pits, the depth 
of which, was sometimes unknown ? Did not this un- 
known depth give rise to the expression depths of hell, 
just as the unknown height of the highest heavens, gave 
rise to this expression ? 

" In Isai. 5: 14.it is said, — u hell hath enlarged 
herself, and opened her mouth without measure ; and 
their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and 
he that rejoiceth shall descend into it." This may be 
said with respect to the grave, but surely with no 
propriety could it be said of a place of eternal mise- 
ry. Speaking of the proud ambitious man, it is al- 
so said, Hab. 2 : 5, — " who enlargeth his desire as 



HELLOLGGY. 167 

hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied." In 
this text, death and hell are used as convertible words 
to express the same thing. In Prov. 27 : 20. it is 
said "hell and destruction are never full.'" Similar 
things are stated above in the texts where Sheol is 
translated grave, as in these passages, and show, that 
the same was intended by the inspired writers, al- 
though the original word is differently rendered. The 
context of all these texts sufficiently show, that the 
grave or state of the dead is meant ; and not a place 
of eternal misery. Indeed, let any one read Ezek. 
32 : 17 — 32. and observe, that all the dead are repre- 
sented as in hell, and as speaking out of the midst of 
hell. Their graves are represented as about them : 
that the mighty are gone down to hell with their wea- 
pons of war, and that their swords are under theirheads. 
All this description agrees very well with the ancient 
mode of placing the dead in their repositories, but it is 
contrary to common belief, that a place of eternal 
misery could be referred to. Does any one believe 
that the mighty of this earth have their sworefo :under 
their heads in such a place ? ^^^V* 

" As Sheol, the grave, or hell, was the most debasetl 
state to which any person could be brought, hence I 
think God says, reproving Israel for their idolatries, 
— " and didst debase thyself even unto hell." Isai. 
57 : 9. And as death and the grave are of all things 
the most dreaded by men, it is said of some, that 
they, — " have made a covenant with death, and with 
hell are at agreement.' 1 This language, expresses in 
a very strong manner, their fancied security, but 
which were only vain words, for it is added, — " your 
covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your 
agreement with hell shall not stand.' 1 Isai. 28 : 15 
—19. 

" The last text in which Sheol is translated hell, is 
Psalm 9 : 17, — ' ; the wicked shall be turned into hell, 



163 HELLOLOGY. 

and all the nations who forget God.'" [An old version 
thus gives this passage — " The wicked shall go into 
hell."] There is no text in which the word Sheol oc- 
curs, which has been more frequently quoted than this, 
to prove that by hell, is meant a place of misery for 
the wicked. The wicked are the persons spoken of, 
and they are said to be, or shall be, turned into hell, 
with all the nations that forget God. Plausible as this 
appears to be, we have only to consult the context, to 
see that no such idea was intended by the inspired 
writer. The Psalm in which the words stand, is treat- 
ing of God's temporal judgments upon the heathen na- 
tions. We think if verses 15 — 20. are consulted, this 
will sufficiently appear. What leads people to think 
that this passage refers to eternal misery, is, the false 
idea which they have attached to the word hell. They 
have associated a false idea with this word, and in this 
text they conclude that it is taught. But surely no 
one, who has attended to all the above texts, can con- 
tinue to believe that Sheol here, has such a meaning. 
It is the same hell into which the wicked are turned, 
where Jacob said he would go down to Joseph mourn- 
ing. It is the same hell in which the Saviour's soul 
was not left. It is the same hell David prayed the 
wicked might go down quick, or into alive. - When 
once I can believe that David prayed the wicked might 
go down alive to a place of endless misery, and Jhat 
Korah and his company did go there alive, it is possi- 
ble I may believe that the text before us contains the 
answer to David's prayer. But it will not be easy to 
produce evidence of this. The fact is, it would prove 
too much for even those who take this view of it. It 
would prove that all ihe heathen nations must go to 
eternal misery, a thing which few are prepared to ad- 
mit. Ask the question of* the most zealous advocates 
of the doctrine, — are all the heathen nations turned 
into eternal misery? They hesitate, they faulter to 



HELLOLOGY. 169 

any, yes. But why do they so ? for if Shoel means 
such a place, the passage is plain and explicit in de- 
claring it. 

" It perhaps may be objected to this view of the text, 
— are not all good people turned into Sheol, or the 
state of the dead, as well as the wicked ? why then is 
H said the wicked shall be turned into hell with all 
the nations that forget God ? The answer to this is 
easy. Though all good people in David's day, went 
to Sheol, as well as the wicked, yet not in the way he 
is here speaking of the wicked. David is speaking 
of God's public judgments on the heathen, and by 
those judgments they were to be cut off from the 
earth, or turned into Sheol. It is one thing to die, 
and. quite another to be cut off by the judgments of 
God from the earth. That the Sheol or hell here 
mentioned, was not a place of endless misery for the 
wicked, see Ainsworth on this text, and on Gen. 37 : 
and Psalm 16. — I shall only add, if all the wicked, 
yea, all the nations who forgot God in those days 
were turned into a place of endless misery, upon 
what principles are we to justify the character of 
God, or of all good men, for their want of feeling to- 
wards them, or their exertions to save them from it ? 
We are told that the times of this ignorance God 
winked at : that he suffered all nations to walk after 
their own ways. If all the heathen nations were turn- 
ed into a place of eternal misery, neither God, nor 
good men Mt, or spoke, or acted, as if this was true. 

" I have now finished what Dr. Campbell calls an 
endless labour, namely, to illustrate by an enumeration 
of all the passages in the Old Testament, that Sheol, 
rendered pit, grave, and hell in the common version, 
does not signify a place of endless misery. What he 
stated concerning this in the above extract, we think 
is strictly correct. Before closing my remarks on all 
these passages, there are a few facts and observations. 
15 



170 HELLOLOGY. 

which have occurred in the examination of them, 
which deserve some notice. 

" 1st, The word translated everlasting, eternal, for 
ever, is never connected with Sheol or hell by any 
of the Old Testament writers. If they believed that 
this was a place of punishment for the wicked, and 
that it was endless in its duration, it is somewhat sur- 
prising that this should be the case. Every one knows, 
that these words are very often used there, but not 
in a single instance do the inspired writers in any way 
use them, when speaking of Sheol, or hell. So far 
from this, in some of the texts, it is said, hell is to be 
destroyed. We may then make an appeal to every 
candid mind, and ask, if hell in the Old Testament re- 
fers to a place of eternal misery, how are we to ac- 
count for this ? The fact is certain. To account for 
it, I leave to those who believe this doctrine. We 
read to be sure in books, and we have heard also in 
sermons, of an eternal hell, but such language, is not 
found in all the book of God, nor did it ever drop 
from the lips of any inspired writer. 

" 2d, Another fact equally certain is, that not only 
are the words eternal, everlasting, or for ever, omitted 
in speaking of Sheol or hell, but this place is not spoken 
about, as a place of misery, at all. Whether Sheol is 
translated pit, grave, or hell, in not one of the passa- 
ges, is it described as a place of misery for the wicked, 
or for any one else. Before there need to be any dis- 
pute, whether the punishment in this place is to be of 
eternal duration, we have first to prove, that it is a 
place of punishment" 

That it is not described as a place of punishment, 
either short or long, is very evident from scripture 
language. We are informed that it is a place of si- 
lence, darkness, and ignorance, where is " no work, 
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom." The man- 
ner in which the inspired writers of ancient times. 



HELLOLOGY. 471 

speak of Sheol, or hell, in regard to themselves, ren- 
ders the subject palpably obvious. They speak of 
going to hell as a matter of course, as men now speak 
of death, or the grave. Could they have done this, 
with the same views which modern christians have 
concerning it ? Impossible. But, if the ideas of scrip- 
ture writers, relative to these words, were the same 
as are those which we frequently hear from the pul- 
pits, how shall we account for the incongruity of their 
expressions ? Nothing which they say y intimates any 
such idea as is generally attached to the words in 
modern times. No word expressing endless duration 
is used in connexion. By what means then, are we 
to conclude they meant what they have not express- 
ed ? The truth is, that a departure from the sense of 
scripture, requires a departure from the language of 
scripture." 

But whatever strength is gathered from preceding 
facts, are corroborated by a circumstance about which 
we cannot well be deceived. If the fears by which 
the moderns are held in bondage, and frequently tor- 
mented to desperation, were harboured by the proph- 
ets and apostles, is it not beyond measure strange, that 
they have not somewhere expressed it ? Do either of 
the writers of the sacred oracles, express a fear of 
endless punishment, for himself, or others ? — Who 
will affirm this ? Do they any where express a belief 
that their writing, or preaching, would be availing to 
save men from the horrors of an endless hell ? No; 
Do they once intimate their fears for the safety of de- 
parted friends ? No. But if they had these, fears, and 
these sorrows, they certainly had language in which 
to express them. We have accounts of the bereave- 
ment of parents, and friends, in very affecting circum- 
stances, but not a word of these dreadful fears rela- 
tive to their eternal welfare. In the affecting lamen- 
tation of David for the death of his parricidal son, not 



172 HELLOLOGtf. 

a word escapes him which should lead us to conjec- 
ture that he formed the horrid idea of interminable 
misery. But if this was the current belief in those 
days, why was it not in some way expressed ? We 
leave this for those to answer who think themselves 
competent to the task. 

But does not Noah plead with God not to damn 
eternally the whole world of men ? O no — he knew 
nothing about endless punishment in Sheol, or hell, 
and Gehenna was not then known. But Abraham 
knew that God was about to destroy Sodom and Go- 
morrah, and did he not plead for the people? Yes — 
but he never asked of Jehovah that they should be sa- 
ved from a hell of future torment. He knew nothing 
of such a doctrine. The gospel, ar> preached to him, 
contained no damnation : — that has been added by his 
followers. The gospel with which he was acquaint- 
ed, was h lessing to the whole race of man, in these 
words — In thee shall all ?iations be blessed. Nor do 
we find in any other instance of exemplary destruc- 
tion, that any person deplored the endless destruction 
of any individual, or nation, destroyed on account of 
his or their iniquities. But, if the doctrine were 
known in those days, why do we not learn this from 
Bible history ? When the Ninevites were threatened 
with destruction, was a hint given, that a fearful and 
an endless hell, awaited them ? Nothing like it is re- 
corded of the preaching of Jonah. Nay, if endless 
misery were the threatening which he w r as command- 
ed to preach, how does it appear that he w r as faithful 
to his duty ? And further — ifhe knew this, what shall 
we say of his anger because God did not send to in- 
terminable destruction the inhabitants of a populous 
city ? But was any prophet of the Lord ever sent 
with a threatening of hell torments, as a means of re- 
claiming the people ? Every reader of the Bible 
knows better. The following extract from Mr. Bal* 



HELLOLOGY. 173 

four is worthy your careful attention, and to your bet- 
ter judgment we submit it. 

" One thing we think must be admitted by all who 
have read the Old Testament with attention. It is 
this : good people in those days, do not appear te 
have had the fears and anxieties of mind which haunt 
men's minds now, about their children, their rela- 
tions, their neighbours, and a great part of mankind, 
as all going to a place of endless misery. You may 
read the Old Testament, until your eyes grow dim 
with age, before you find any thing like this there. 
How is this silence to be accounted for, if the doctrine 
of endless misery was known and believed ? If by 
Sheol they understood the same as men do now by the 
word hell, is it possible, that good people in those days 
could feel so easy on such a subject ? Whatever ideas 
they attached to this word, we think it is certain, they 
did not mean by it a place of endless misery. 

The question is likely then to be asked, seeing that 
Sheol or hell does not m ean a place of eternal misery, 
— what does it mean ? What is the idea which the Old 
Testament writers affixed to this word ? From the re- 
marks already made, we think something has been 
said in answer to this question. — By Sheol, seems ev- 
idently to be meant, what Job calls, chap. 30 : 33, — 
u The house appointed/or all the living.'' 1 And it is the 
same to which Solomon alludes, when he says, Eccles. 
3 : 20. — u all go to one place." The question still 
returns, What place is this ? What place it is, may be 
learned further from the following passages. In 2 Sam. 
12: 23. where David is speaking of his dead child, 
he says, — a I shall go to him, but he shall not return 
to me." This, it may be said, only provokes the 
question — where was his child ? In heaven, most peo- 
ple would answer, and some have quoted this text to 
prove the salvation of all infants. Nothing more, I 
conceive, is meant, nor could be rationally inferred 



1*4 HELLOLOGY. 

from the text than this, — that his child was in the 
state of the dead, or in Sheol, and David, impressed 
with a sense of his own mortality, intimates, that he 
would soon follow him to the same place. So Jacob 
speaks of himself in a similar way in reference to his 
son Joseph. But further, we rind in 1 Sam. 28 : 19. 
Samuel thus speaks to Saul, " to-morrow shalt thou 
and thy sons be with me. 1 ' Where was this ? It may 
be asked, — When Saul desired the woman to bring 
up Samuel, was it from heaven he expected him to 
come ? Surely not ; for in this case Samuel would 
have been brought down, not up. Was it then from 
hell, the place of eternal misery, he expected him to 
come ? This cannot be admitted, for neither Saul, nor 
any one else, ever thought that Samuel was there. 
From what place then did Saul wish the woman to 
bring Samuel ? I answer, from Sheol, the same place 
to which Jacob said he would go down mourning to 
Joseph. The same place in which the Saviour's soul 
was not left. If Saul and his sons went to hell, a 
place of endless misery, it is certain Samuel was 
there before him. And it is equally certain, that if 
Samuel was in heaven, Saul and his sons were there 
soon after with him. But what appears simply to be 
meant is this, — Samuel was in Sheol, or the state of 
the dead, and the issue of the battle proved, that Saul 
and his sons were with Samuel, and with all the dead 
who had gone before them. As to the woman's having 
power to bring Samuel from Sheol. we do not believe 
any such thing. We believe that she va as an impos- 
tor, but this is not the place for assigning our reasons, 
or entering further into this part of the history of Saul. 
We hare merely referred to it as showing what were 
the popular opinions in those days on the suhiect be- 
fore us. 



HELLOLOGY. 175 

SUGTZOM VI. 

An examination of the only passage in the New Testament, where 
our Lord threatens the Jews with Gehenna pnnishment. 

BY THE EDITOR. 

As we are about to examine the most dreadful threat- 
ening which has been denounced against transgressors* 
let us come to the subject with minds solemnized by- 
reflections on its vast importance. If this threatening 
is shown to require interminable misery for its accom- 
plishment, our duty to ourselves, our country, and the 
world, calls upon us for its developement. No cir- 
cumstance, and no concern below the throne of God, 
should divert our minds from the most prayerful in- 
vestigation, and the most untiring promulgation of the 
dreadful fact. Whatever have been our previous 
views of the subject, let us come to the examination 
with minds imbued with the love of truth, and a de- 
termination to sacrifice on her altar every prejudice, 
and every desire to turn away from what is contained 
in the oracles of God. If the facts be against us, we 
cannot reverse the determination of the Almighty — 
nor can we avoid the bright shining of the sun, by 
shutting our eyes on his refulgent beams. 

The words under consideration are recorded by 
Mat. 23 : 33. " Ye ser'pents, ye generation of vipers. 
how can ye escape the damnation of hell ?" We think 
every person will be satisfied, that if endless misery is 
not asserted in this passage, the doctrine is not taught 
in the New-Testament. In addition to the word Ge- 
henna, which is here translated hell, and which Dr. 
Campbell asserts, is used to designate the place of end- 
less misery, the word damnation is also added. Thus 
fortified with terrific horrors to the imagination of 
thousands, we venture to examine the citation fully 
and fearlessly, and to give our readers the result of the 
investigation^ 



176 HELLOLOGV. 

We have already seen the concession of the learn- 
ed, that neither Gehenna, nor any other word in the 
Old Testament, is there used to signify a place of end- 
less, nor of limited misery, in any other world than 
this. It is past controversy, that if the ancient people 
of God knew no such place, they had no name by 
which to call it. The first question to he settled, is, 
how did those on whom Christ denounced this threat- 
ening, understand him ? If we can learn the true an- 
swer to this question, the subject is closed, and the 
meaning demonstrated. 

That we may gain the best light on the subject which 
our means will afford, we shall first present a few re- 
marks from Dr. Campbell. He says, — " if the words 
and phrases employed by the apostles and evangelists, 
in delivering the revelation committed to them by the 
Holy Spirit, had not been agreeable to the received 
usage of the people to whom they spoke, their dis- 
courses, being unintelligible, could have conveyed no 
information, and consequently would have been no 
revelation to the hearers. Our Lord and his apostles, 
in publishing the gospel, first addressed themselves to 
their countrymen the Jews ; a people who had, many 
ages before, at different periods, been favoured with 
other revelations. 

" As the writings of the Old Testament are of a much 
earlier date, and contain an account of the rise and 
first establishment, together with a portion of the his- 
tory of the nation to whom the gospel was first promul- 
gated, and of whom were all its first missionaries and 
teachers, it is thence unquestionably that we must 
learn, both what the principal facts, customs, doctrines, 
and precepts arc, that are alluded to in the apostoli- 
cal writings, and what is the proper signification and 
extent of the expressions used." 

The good sense of this quotation is obvious, and we 
can render it no higher praise than by attending to its 



HELLOLOGY. 177 

instructions. We have then to inquire, what was the 
44 received usage of the people' 1 to whom Jesus ad- 
dressed the words in question ? This is easily answer- 
ed by the fact, that Gehenna is " a compound of the 
two Hebrew words, Ge hinnom, the valley of Hinnom, 
a place near Jerusalem. That this valley formed a 
division line among the children of Israel, is evident 
by Josh. 15: 8. "And the border went up by the 
valley of the son of Hinnom, unto the south side of the 
Jebusite ; the same is Jerusalem : and the border 
went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before 
the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of 
the valley of the giants northward." This is again 
mentioned in the same way, ch. 18 : 16, and is occa- 
sionally noticed in other places of the Old Testament, 
in a way to put the subject of origin, as to the name, 
entirely out of dispute. Of the use to which they put 
this valley, we have already given abundant evidence. 
To a Jew, nothing could convey a more dreadful idea. 
Pollution and temporal suffering were the images 
with which the name was always associated, after it 
was used as a place of sacrifice for human victims, a 
depot of tilth, and a repository for the carcasses of 
condemned malefactors. 

As people have supposed that our Saviour used the 
term Gehenna as a figure to represent the sufferings of 
men in the invisible world, it may not be amiss to quote 
from the Old Testament, a prophecy which was on the 
eve of fulfilment when he delivered this threatening. 

" The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, 
saying. Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and pro- 
claim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the 
Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to 
worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the 
God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and 
I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not 
in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The 






5*WS 



178 HELLOLOGY. 

temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are 
these. For if ye thoroughly amend yoar ways and your 
doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between 
a man and his neighbour ; If ye oppress not the stran- 
ger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not inno- 
cent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods 
to your hurt : Then will I cause you to dwell in this 
place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever 
and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that can- 
not profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adul- 
tery, and swear falsely, and hum incense unto Baal, 
and walk after other gods whom ye know not ; and 
come and stand before me in this house, which is call- 
ed by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all 
these abominations ? It is this house, which is called 
by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes ? 
behold even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go 
ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I 
set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for 
the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, be- 
cause ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, 
and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, 
but ye heard not ; and I called you, but ye answered 
not ; therefore will I do unto this house, which is call- 
ed by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place 
which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done 
to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I 
have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of 
Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, 
neither left up cry nor prayer for them, neither make 
intercession to me : for I will not hear thee. Seest 
thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in 
the streets of Jerusalem ? The children gather wood, 
and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead 
their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, 
and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that 
they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me 



fiELLOLOGY. 179 

to auger ? saith the Lord : do they not provoke them- 
selves to the confusion of their own faces ? There- 
fore thus saith the Lord God : Behold, mine anger 
and my fury shall be poured out upon that place, upon 
man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, 
and upon the fruit of the ground ; and it shall burn, 
and shall not be quenched. Thus saith the Lord of 
hosts, the God of Israel ; Put your burnt-offerings un- 
to your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto 
your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I 
brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning 
burnt-offerings or sacrifices : But this thing command- 
ed I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your 
God, and ye shall be my people : and walk ye in all 
the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be 
well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined 
their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imag- 
ination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not 
forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth 
out of the land of Egypt unto this day ; I have even 
sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising 
up early and sending them ; Yet they hearkened not 
unto me nor inclined their ear, but hardened their 
neck : they did worse than their fathers. Therefore 
thou shalt speak all these words unto them : but they 
will not hearken to thee : thou shalt also call unto 
them ; but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt 
say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the 
voice of the Lord their God, not receiveth correction : 
truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. Cut 
off thine hair, Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take 
up a lamentation on high places ; for the Lord hath 
rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For 
the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith 
the Lord : they have set their abominations in the 
house which is called by my name, to pollute it. And 
they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in 



180 HELLOLOGY. 

the valley of the son of Hinnom, to bum their sons 
and their daughters in the fire ; which I commanded 
them not, neither came it into my heart. Therefore, 
behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no 
more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of 
Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter : for they shall bu- 
ry in Tophet, till there be no place. And the carcasses 
of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heav- 
en, and for the beasts of the earth ; and none shall fray 
them away. Then will I cause to cease from the 
cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the 
voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of 
the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride : for the 
land shall be desolate." 

The reader is now requested to bear in mind the 
three last verses of this chapter, and while reading 
the 19th chapter, quoted below, notice the correspon- 
dence. 

" Thus saith the Lord, go and get a porter's earthen 
bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of 
the ancients of the priests ; and go forth unto the val- 
ley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the 
east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall 
tell thee ; and say, hear ye the word of the Lord, O 
kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem : Thus 
saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I 
will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever 
heareth, his ears shall tingle. Because they have for- 
saken me, and have estranged this place, and have 
burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither 
they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of 
Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of in- 
nocents ; They have built also the high places of Baal, 
1o burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto 
Baal, which I commanded not. nor^pake it, neither 
came it into my mind : Therefore, behold, the days 
come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be 



HELLOLGGY. 181 

called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, 
but the valley of slaughter. And I will make void the 
counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place ; and I 
will cause them to fall by the sword before their ene- 
mies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives ; 
and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls 
of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And 
I will make this city desolate, and an hissing ; every 
one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss, 
because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause 
them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of 
their daughters, and they shall eat every one of the 
flesh of his friend, in the siege and straitness where- 
with their enemies, and they that seek their lives shall 
straiten them. Then shalt thou break the bottle in 
the sight of the men that go~with thee, And shalt say 
unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Even so will 
I break this people, and this city, as one breaketh a 
potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again .; 
and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no 
place to bury. This will I do unto this place, saith 
the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make 
this city as Tophet : And the houses of Jerusalem, 
and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled 
as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon 
whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host 
of heaven, and have poured out drink -offerings unto 
other gods. Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, 
whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy ; and he 
stood in the court of the Lord's house, and said to all 
the people, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of 
Israel, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her 
towns, all the evil that I have pronounced against it; 
because they have hardened their necks, that they 
might not hear my words." 

Having examined with good attention the preceding 
prophecies, we may be the better prepared to analyze 

16 



J8i> HELLOLOGV. 

the threats of our Lord concerning Jerusalem. But 
first, let us inquire of what Jeremiah was directed to 
make Gehenna the emblem ? Answer. " Thus eaith 
the Lord of hosts, even so [as Jeremiah was to break 
the bottle] will! i break this people, and this city, 
as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made 
whole again ; and they shall bury them in Tophet, 
till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do to this 
place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, 
and even make this city as Tophet/ 5 Gehenna then, 
was made an emblem of pollution, and temporal mise- 
ry, and we shall soon see how our Lord applied it. 

In the verse preceding the one under special con- 
sideration, the Jews are directed — " Fill ye up then 
the measure of your fathers." What was this meas- 
ure ? Let the context answer : 

" Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and 
wise men, and scribes ; and some of them ye shall kill 
and crucify ; and some of them shall ye scourge in 
your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city : 
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed 
upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto 
the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye 
slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say 
unto you, all these things shall come upon this genera- 
tion. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the 
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, 
how often would 1 have gathered thy children togeth- 
er, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings, and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left 
unto you desolate." 

The man who does not see that the theatening to 
make the city desolate, is a repetition of the prophe- 
cy by Jeremiah, fs most certainly a dull scholar. That 
Christ here alludes to this prophecy, is evident, from 
his description of the catastrophe. But let it be par- 
ticularly noted, that this punishment is denounced 



HELLOLOGY. 183 

against the Jews and their chief city only. It has no 
allusion to the punishment of wicked men generally, 
and therefore the apostles of our Lord never preached 
it to the Gentiles. The Jews, as a people, most evi- 
dently understood the language, for it was that of the 
prophets, and they must have understood it as they 
did the words of their prophecies. And that they did 
so understand it, is evident by the fact that Christ does 
not intimate any other meaning; nor do they express 
any surprise as they undoubtedly would, had he con- 
veyed any ideas to their minds which were not usually 
associated with the language in common use. 

That our Lord was foretelling the destruction of 
Jerusalem by the sword of the Romans, will hardly be 
disputed, by those who will carefully consider the 
prophecies just quoted. How the Lord " made void 
the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem,' 1 is evident by 
the result of the siege, as well as the manner in which 
the disciples were saved by believing the words of 
their master respecting the suffering of that devoted 
people. They fled from Jerusalem to Pella, being 
persuaded the day of vengeance had arrived, in which 
the wrath had " come upon them to the uttermost.'' 
Josephus, the Jewish historian, testifies that the hor- 
rors of the siege, described Jer. 19:9, were literally 
fulfilled in the generation of the apostles. In this 
light we also view the declaration, " Verily I say unto 
you, all these things shall come upon this genera- 
tion.'' But was this generation to be known in an- 
other world, and was all the blood of the prophets to 
be required at the hands of the Jews who heard our 
Saviour, in another state of existence ? Impossible, 
that so flagrant a breach of every just rule of criticism 
should be deliberately practised by honest and dis- 
criminating minds. But as the labours of the ortho- 
dox are generally more acceptable than those of Uni- 
versalists, we will give the celebrated Dr. Adam 



184 HELLOLOGY. 

Clarke's Commentary on Mat. 5: 22. "whosoever 
shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." 

" Thou fool. — A rebel against God, apostate from 
all good. This term implied, among the Jews, the 
highest enormity, and most aggravated guilt. Among 
the Gentoos, such an expression was punished by cut- 
ting out the tongue, and thrusting a hot iron, of ten 
fingers' breadth, into the mouth of the person who 
used it. 

" Shall be in danger of hell fire. — Shall be liable to 
the hell of fire. Our Lord here alludes to the valley 
of the son of Hinnom. This place was near Jerusa- 
lem, and had been formerly used for those abominable 
sacrifices in which the idolatrous Jews had caused 
their children to pass through the fire to Moloch. A 
particular place in this valley was called Tophet, the 
fire-stove, in which some suppose they burnt their chil- 
dren alive to the above idol. From the circumstan- 
ces of this valley having been the scene of those in- 
fernal sacrifices, the Jews, in our Saviour's time, used 
the word for hell, the place of the damned. [This is 
a mere supposition without a fact in its support.] It 
is very probable, that our Lord means no more here 
than this : If a man charge another with apostacy 
from the Jewish religion, or rebellion against God, and 
cannot prove his charge, then he is exposed to that 
punishment, (burning alive) which the other must have 
suffered, if the charge had been substantiated. There 
are three kind of offences here, which exceed each 
other in their degrees of guilt. 1st. Anger against a 
man, accompanied with some injurious act. 2dly. 
Contempt, expressed by the opprobrious epithet raca, 
or shallow brains. 3dly. Hatred and a mortal enmi- 
ty, expressed by the term moreh, or apostate, where 
such apostacy could not be proved. Now, propor- 
tioned to these three offences were three different de- 
grees of punishment, each exceeding the other in its 



HELLOLOGY. 185 

severity, as the offences exceeded each other in their 
different degrees of guilt. 1st. The judgment, the 
council of twenty-three, which could inflict the pun- 
ishment of strangling. 2dly. The Sanhedrim, or great 
council, which could inflict the punishment of stoning. 
And 3dl v, the being burnt alive in the valley of the 
son of Hinnom. This appears to be the meaning of 
our Lord. 1 ' 

As no man will accuse Dr. Ciarke of wishing to 
countenance Universalists, we hope the facts which 
he has stated, and of which he was fully competent to 
judge, will have their due influence. That the Jews 
understood our Lord, in the foregoing quotation, to 
threaten any thing more than u being burnt alive in 
the valley of the son of Hinnom," to which punish- 
ment the Sanhedrim could condemn them, no man, 
we believe, will venture to affirm. If he attached any 
other meaning to the term ysswa rov itvgog, the burning 
of Gehenna, we have no means of ascertaining the 
fact. And can xgjtfsws, condemnation, judgment, add to, 
or alter the place, or Gehenna ? Nobody will pretend 
this. Why then, need we seek among the moderns, or 
the pagans of antiquity, for a meaning to certain words 
and phrases, not known to the Jewish Scriptures? 
The question is not, and cannot be, What do the mo- 
dems believe, or affirm, relative to these things ? But, 
what did the Jews believe, and to what purpose did 
they apply them — and what was their understanding 
of the terms ? We have seen by the Old Testament 
with what view the prophets used them, and of what 
they were made the emblems. If our Lord employed 
them in another sense, the fact has not come down 
to us, and analogy is utterly against it. 

But, whatever meaning men may attach to the 
phrase damnation of hell, or punishment of Gehennp 3 
one thing is well to remember — it zoas never threaten- 
ed to any but Jews, nor to them but by our Lord. The 
16* 



186 HELLOLOGY. 

whole system therefore fails, as applied to the Gen- 
tiles. Few of the Gentile nations knew any thing 
about Gehenna, and none but Jews could be suppo- 
sed familiar with their localities, and peculiar cus- 
toms. 

As this is evidently a prophetic warning of the des- 
truction of the Jewish nation and polity, we may gain 
further information by consulting corresponding pas- 
sages in the other evangelists. In Mark 13: 14, we 
read a quotation from Daniel, which will presently be 
examined. " But when ye shall see the abomination 
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand- 
ing where it ought not (let him that readeth un- 
derstand) then let them that be in Judea flee to the 
mountains. " That this is an account of the same dis- 
course noticed by Mat. 23 : is too obvious to gainsay. 
But can we see the propriety offieeing to the mountains, 
if the torments of hell in a future world, are threaten- 
ed in this passage 1 A reference to Dan. 12: 11. will 
set us right in this matter, and point to the very time 
of Jerusalem's overthrow. u And from the time that 
the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abom- 
ination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a 
thousand two hundred and ninety days.'' At what 
time was this to happen ? Answer, v. 7. " When he 
shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the 
holy people, all these things shall be finished.'" But 
when ? See v. 1. — "there shall be a time of trouble 
such as never was since there was a nation, even to 
that same time.' 5 But how does this settle it? An- 
swer — By reference to our Lord's words, Mat. 24 : 21. 
" For then [at the destruction of Jerusalem, when 
the power of the holy people, the Jews, should be 
scattered] shall be great tribulation, such as was not 
since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor 
kver biiALL be." Could any thing be more definite? 
Such an entire destruction, so much sullcring, had not 



HELLOLOGY. 137 

occurred before the time of our Saviour, and he de- 
clares should not again happen. Daniel then de- 
scribes this very time, of which our Lord prophesied, 
as ai\>out to happen in that generation. The descrip- 
tion \s perfect, and the time of the accomplishment of 
the prophecies respecting that city, put beyond a cavil. 
How then does the tenet of endless misery gather an 
iota of strength from this passage ? The hope, if so 
dreadful, so diabolical a hope could be cherished, is 
certainly a forlorn one. 

In the account of this same prediction given us by 
Luke, we find no cause for variation in the views al- 
ready given. 

" And when he was come near, he beheld the city, 
and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even 
thou at least in this thy day, the things wh'ch belong 
unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine 
eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine 
enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass 
thee round, and keep thee in on every side ; and shall 
lay thee even with the ground, and thy children with- 
in thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one stone 
upon another ; because thou knewest not the time of 
thy visitation. 1 ' 

We now ask why Jesus wept over the city ? Was 
his grief occasioned by a prospective view of their suf- 
ferings in an endless hell ? The enemies of his peo- 
ple would cast up a trench, besiege the city, and take 
it. That city, the pride of Palestine, and of the na- 
tions, with its temple, was to be razed to the ground, 
and great wrath was to be poured upon that people. 
But nothing is said of their miseries in another world. 
Nor did he, immediately prior to his crucifixion, utter 
a syllable like it. " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not 
forme, but weep for yourselves, and for your chil- 
dren.' 5 Why this weeping for themselves and chil- 
dren ? On account of the desolation of the city, most 



183 HELLOLOGY. 

certainly, and the sore afflictions which are the con- 
comitants of war, and the horrors of a siege. He 
knew that the delicate women would seethe their own 
children, and that the most dreadful tortures awaited 
them. And in Mat. 24 : 19, 20, the reason of this ad- 
monition is made apparent. "And woe unto them 
that are with child, and to them that give suck, in 
those days. 1 " The reason is obvious. " For then shall 
be great tribulation." Whether a combination of the 
horrors of war, famine, pestilence, and intestine divis- 
ions, were not sufficiently dreadful to render his com- 
miseration pertinent to the occasion, let those judge, 
who have experienced but one of these evils at a time 
— or let him or her who can feci for other's wo, read 
the history of the Jewish wars, and judge righteous 
judgment. 

But we think sufficient has been written, to convince 
every reasonable being, who is in earnest to understand 
the subject, that " damnation of hell," or the con- 
demnation of Gehenna, has no allusion to future limit- 
ed, or interminable punishment, and that the threat- 
ening was long ago fulfilled on the outcasts of Israel. 

But we shall now notice some facts, to show that if 
the term Gehenna, always translated hell, in the com- 
mon version, really signifies a place of inexpressible 
torture in a future state of being, it is certainly re- 
markable, that this word is not more frequently used in 
the New-Testament. The whole number of times 
which Gehenna is found in the New-Testament, is but 
twelve. That it was not used as many times as it ap- 
pears, is evident from the circumstance, that the differ- 
ent evangelists relate the same discourses, and seve- 
ral are therefore a repetition. In the various places 
used, it is imputed to our Lord eleven times, and to 
James once. No other disciple of our Lord, nor one 
solitary apostle, uses it a single time, in any way. 
James, speaking of an unruly tongue, says it is set on 



HELLOLOGY. 



189 



fire of Gehenna, or hell. In this case, it is so evident- 
ly used figuratively, that it needs no comment. But 
what shall we say of the messengers who were sent 
out into the world to preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture ? Is not the preaching of hell torments, gospel, 
or good news ? If it were, why did they not thus 
preach ? or if they did so preach, why do we not hear 
something about it ? Let those who believe their 
master thus taught them, offer an excuse for their neg- 
ligence. 

But did Christ ever hint, that God had reserved to 
himself the privilege of inflicting endless pains on any 
of his creatures, either for unbelief, or an unholy life? 
No — never. In the passage which we have just exam- 
ined, the affirmative method of asking the question, 
renders it certain they could not, by any means, avoid 
the punishment of Gehenna. Had they been able to 
avoid this catastrophe, the prophecy must have failed, 
and the ^th of Matthew, instead of proving Christ a 
true prophet, would have proved both him, and Jere- 
miah, and Daniel, false prophets ! 

In the next section, we shall examine all the re- 
maining passages in the New-Testament where the 
word Gehenna occurs. 






SECTION VII. 

The remaining places where Gehenna occurs in the New-Tes- 
tament fairly examined. 

BY THE EDITOR. 
WHOSO READETH, LET HIM UNDERSTAND. 



In our previous examination of Gehenna, we have 
endeavoured to show, that the Jews did not under- 



190 HELLOLOGY. 

stand a place of endless misery by the use of this word. 
It was in common use among the Hebrews as the name 
of a polluted place near Jerusalem, of which they 
needed no explanation. But if they did not impute 
any other meaning to the word, under the Mosaic dis- 
pensation, by what means should they gain the knowl- 
edge that the same word in the mouth of Christ, 
should be subject to a different definition ? To those 
who profess to believe that the term conveyed to the 
Jews the same ideas which are attached to it by the 
moderns, belongs the burden of proof. We shall 
content ourselves with a demonstration of the ne- 
gative. 

A particular point to which we now wish to turn 
your attention, is the language at the head of this sec- 
tion. Christ, referring to the prophecy of Daniel, rela- 
tive to ihe destruction of Jerusalem, points directly to 
the understanding which the Jews had of their pro- 
phetic language — whoso readeth, let him understand. 
But how were they to understand, by a reference to 
the language of their prophets, that which had never 
been predicted ? Daniel predicted the overthrow and 
dismemberment of the Jewish nation, and the conse- 
quent dispersion of the people. This was to come 
upon them for their iniquities, and the description of 
their iniquities, and the consequences which would re- 
sult from them, are the same, as given by Daniel and 
by Christ. The time is reduced to the most accurate 
certainty of which language is capable. The damna- 
tion of hell spoken of by Christ, is therefore the same 
to which the prophet refers. But this is so plain, that 
we doubt if any one who has intelligence and honesty 
will doubt it. 

As Mat. 5 : 22, has already received particular at- 
tention, we have but ten passages left for examination. 
To these then Ave shall attend, after a few explanatory 
remarks. 



HELLOLOGY. 19! 

The term Gehenna, was never used but to the Jews, 
unless accompanied by an explanation. To the Gen- 
tiles it is never threatened in the New-Testament. 
Let every one examine for himself, the places where 
it is mentioned, and no reasoning of ours will be ne- 
cessary, to demonstrate the fact. Our Saviour, indeed, 
was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Is- 
rael, and it may be contended that he could not be sup- 
posed to denounce a threatening to those who were 
not the subjects of his ministry. But what shall we 
say of the ministry of the apostles ? Did they in 
a single instance, threaten the damnation of hell to 
their hearers, whether Jew or Gentile ? Search their 
preaching through, as recorded in the Acts of the 
apostles, and not one instance can be found of this 
threatening. Whatever then be the meaning of the 
term, either the apostles were unfaithful or incompe- 
tent teachers, or the denunciation of suffering in Ge- 
henna was not a part of their ministry. 

But another remark, calculated to throw light on 
this subject, is, that in nine of the twelve places where 
Gehenna occurs, it is specially directed to his particu- 
lar cfcsciples. To them he spoke, as if it might be 
avoided, but to the unbelieving Jews, as their certain 
doom. But is this the practice of modern teachers ? 
we all know it is not. Those who are in the church- 
es are considered as in the ark of safety ; while those 
who are without, are often mentioned as fit fuel for 
hell fire. Did John, the forerunner of Christ, once 
mention, even to the Jews, the punishment of Gehen- 
na ? No. True, he inquired, Who hath warned you 
to flee from the wrath to come ? But he never men- 
tioned, that this wrath was to be exemplified in a com- 
ing state. The wrath to come, was the wrath com- 
ing upon the Jewish nation, from which the believers 
in Jesus escaped. Signs were given them, by which 
they well understood the calamities which were ready 
to be poured out on their country. 



192 HELLOLOGY. 

Let us now attend to Mat. 23 : 15. Here a wo i< 
pronounced on Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, who 
make their proselytes two fold more the children of 
hell than themselves. As we have already seen to 
what hell these Jews were liable, and which they 
could not escape, in the examen of the 33d verse of 
this chapter, perhaps very little will be necessary on 
this subject. Let it then be observed, that proselytes 
from another faith, are more frequently the recipients 
of unholy zeal, and blind fanaticism, than those by 
whom they have been converted. To ingratiate them- 
selves into the good will of their spiritual fathers, re- 
quires a more constant regard to the prescribed regi- 
men of the sect, and an over-solicitude for the well- 
being of the sect which they have joined, lest they be 
accused of lukewarmness. And in this view of the 
subject, we see how much more likely would be the 
opposition of proselytes to bring on themselves swift 
destruction, than that of even the Jews. No man 
in his senses, would contend, that if both Jews, and 
Gentile converts to Judaism, were to be endlessly 
miserable, the proselytes would be " doubly damned. 11 

As to Mat. 5 : 29, 30, we cannot better express our 
own impressions, than by quoting from Mr. Balfour's 
remarks on them. 

" What did our Lord mean by these offending 
them ? It is well known that the word translated of- 
fend, signifies to cause to stumble, and is in some pla- 
ces translated a stumbling block. By their right eye 
or hand offending them, then, must be meant, their 
unsubdued passions and propensities causing them to 
stumble and fall from their profession of Christ's name. 
If these proved a stumbling block, or caused them to 
offend, they thereby exposed themselves to the pun- 
ishment of hell fire. It was profitable, therefore, for 
them to subdue these, or to part with them, though 
dear to them as members of their bodies, than expose 



HELLOLOGY. 19^ 

themseves to such a punishment. This, so far> I pre- 
sume, will he allowed as our Lord's meaning, whatev- 
er sense we give the word Gehenna or hell in this pas- 
sage. Is it then asked— What does our Lord mean by 
Gehenna or hell ? I answer, the very same punish- 
ment which he threatened the unbelieving Jews with, 
Mat. 23 : 33, when he said to them, "how can ye es- 
cape the damnation of hell ?■" — If his disciples indulg- 
ed their lusts, and proved apostates from their profes- 
sion, they should be involved in the same dreadful ca- 
lamities with the rest of the Jewish nation. Accor- 
dingly, he said to his disciples, Mat. 24 : 1 3, — " he that 
shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved." If 
the question is asked, — Saved from what ? The con- 
text clearly shows, that they should be saved from all 
the temporal calamities foretold by our Lord, which 
were to come on that generation. All who did endure 
to the end of the Jewish state, were saved. M'Knight, 
in a note on Mat. 24 : thus writes : — " The people of 
the church in Jerusalem being ordered by an- oracle 
given to the faithful in that place, by revelation, left 
the city before the war, and dwelt in a city of Perea, 
the name of which was Pella." This oracle, perhaps, 
was no other than the information our Lord gave his 
disciples in Mat. 24. If they attended to it, they need- 
ed no other oracle. But I only notice this, without 
pretending to decide about it. As to his disciples, the 
following is very evident. Patient enduring to the 
end, was not only connected with their temporal safe- 
ty, but attention to the directions given Mat. 24. If 
one of them, being in the field, returned back te 
take his clothes, the safety promised might not be ob- 
tained. No worldly consideration was to be an apol- 
ogy for a moment's delay, but with the utmost speed 
they were to make their escape. When our Lord 
spoke of the punishment of hell to the unbelieving 
Jews, he mentioned it as a thing they could not es- 

17 



194 HELLOLOGY. 

cape. " How can ye escape the damnation of hell ? r ' 
They had nearly filled up the measure of their iniqui- 
ty, and upon them was to come all the righteous blood 
shed upon the earth. But when he spoke to the dis- 
ciples about this punishment, he spoke of it as a thing 
they might escape, if they attended to the instructions 
which he gave them. See Matth. 24 : where he is 
at great pains in pointing out the course they must 
pursue, if they would avoid the impending destruc- 
tion. 

We then see a very good reason why our Lord 
«aid so much to his disciples about the punishment of 
hell, and so little to the unbelieving Jews. Allowing 
that hell does not mean a place of endless misery, but 
the temporal calamities coming on the Jews, every 
thing said about it is just what might be expected. 
But can it ever be rationally and scripturally account- 
ed for, that our Lord should only once mention u the 
damnation of helP'tothe unbelieving Jews, if there- 
by he meant a punishment in eternal torment ? Besides, 
does not this view rationally and Scripturally account 
for the very extraordinary fact, that not a word about 
hell or Gehenna is said to the Gentiles by any of the 
inspired writers 1 How is the fact to be accounted 
for on the common view given of the punishment of 
Gehenna ? If my view be allowed correct, it rational- 
ly, and I think Scripturally, accounts for these things* 
That it does account for them, is some evidence that 
it is correct. 

"Let us now consider the language of this passage, 
and see if it does not confirm these views of the sub- 
ject. It is said twice, — " and that thy whole body 
should be cast into hell, or Gehenna.' 1 This language 
is not in unison with the common ideas entertained of 
hell. Do we ever hear a preacher tell his audience, 
that their "whole body shall be cast into hell, or that 
body and soul shall be cast into it?" No ; they al- 



HELLOLOGY. 195 

low that the soul only goes there at death, and the 
body returns to the dus^ and not at least until the 
resurrection, do both go there together. The phrase 
*' thy whole body," appears to be of the same import 
with that expressed in another passage by the words 
" soul and body" We shall show hereafter, that by 
the word soul, is not meant, as is generally believed, 
the spirit, which exists in a separate state from the 
body, but natural life. See on Mat. 10: 28. below. 
Another thing ought to be noticed, that preachers now 
only threaten men with the punishment of hell if they 
continue in unbelief ; but here our Lord threatened 
his disciples with it if they did not cut off a right hand, 
and pluck out a right eye ; or, in plain language, did 
not part with every thing dear to them, rather than 
disobey the Saviour. Besides, he said most about 
hell to those in least danger of it, and only mentioned 
it once to those in the greatest danger. — The conduct 
of preachers in our day, about this, is precisely the 
reverse of his. All they say of hell is said to the 
wicked. 

" By consulting the context of this passage, it will 
be seen, that there is nothing in it to support the idea, 
that hell is a place of endless misery. Any evidence 
it affords, rather goes to prove the view I have given 
of it. But as a consideration of it, would only lead 
to similar remarks made already, I pass it over." 

As to Mat. 13: 8,9, these are so obviously of the 
same import, that any thing which can be said, would 
be a mere repetition. It may not be amiss, to state 
that the use of the term fire, as connected with God's 
judgments on the Jewish nation, is not a new appli- 
cation of the word for the purpose. Moses, Isaiah, 
Ezekiel, Amos, Jeremiah, and David, all used it in 
this manner, and we have before seen, that if the Jews 
were not to understand the words used by Christ, as 
they had been accustomed to understand the writings 



1*96 fiTELLOLOGY. 

of the prophets, the labour of Christ must have been 
worse than vain. Nay, they must have been design- 
edly obscured for the very purpose of deceiving the 
unwary. 

Let us now quote Mark 9 : 43 — 49. " And if thy 
hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to 
enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go 
into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched ; 
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quench- 
ed. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better 
for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to 
be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be 
quenched ; where their worm dieth not, and the lire 
is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck 
it out : it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom 
of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast 
into hell-fire ; where their worm dieth not, and the 
fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted 
with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with 
salt. 1 ' 

Notwithstanding the length, and terrific appearance 
of this passage, whoever reads it may soon be satisfied 
that it is only a repetition of the same discourse noti- 
ced in Matt. 18 : 8, 9. Commentators allow that 
Mark wrote at Alexandria, or at all events, out of 
Jewry, which laid on him the necessity of adding to 
the term Gehenna, the fire that never shall be quench- 
ed. This addition was not necessary in Judea, where 
every thing relative to Gehenna was known, while to 
Gentiles it was absolutely important for the true un- 
derstanding of the language. Nevertheless, it is now 
considered as next to proof positive that a state of pun- 
ishment in a post mortem state, is clearly taught in 
the New Testament. But this idea originates from 
a false view of the subject. The contrast exhibited is 
supposed to justify this view, which a brief examina- 
tion will exhibit in a very different light from the 



HELLOLOGY. 



197 



common sentiment. Christians have supposed that 
the phrases, to enter into life, into the kingdom of 
God, and into the kingdom of heaven, all allude to a 
state of immortal beatitude in a future world. That 
this is not their meaning, is soon made obvious, by a 
recurrence to the scriptures where they are used e 
Dr. Campbell says on this very passage, " they must 
lay aside their ambition and worldly pursuits, before 
they be honored to be the members, much more the 
ministers, of that new establishment he was about to 
erect.'' Mr. Balfour, on this passage, has the follow- 
ing: — 

"Thus in Luke 21 : 31, 32. " so ye, when ye 
shall see these things come to pass, know ye that 
the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say 
unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all be 
fulfilled." It is evident from this passage, that the 
kingdom of God, in some sense or other, was not to 
come till the end of the Jewish dispensation. It was 
at this period to come with power, Mark 9:1. and 
comp. Matth. 16: 28. See Whitby on these texts* 
who takes the same view of our Lord's kingdom which 
is here given. But in proof of this view of entering 
into Christ's kingdom, I shall here quote the follow- 
ing from Dr. Campbell's note on Matth. 19 : 28. He 
says : — " We are accustomed to apply the term regen- 
eration solely to the conversion of individuals ; where- 
as its relation here is to the general state of things. 
As they were wont to denominate the creation yzvstiic^ 
a remarkable restoration, or renovation of the face of 
things, was very suitably termed tfaXj^ysvstfta. The 
return of the Israelites to their own land, after the 
Babylonish captivity, is so named by Josephus, the 
Jewish historian. What was said on verse 23, holds 
equally in regard to the promise we have here. The 
principal completion will be at the general ressurrec- 
tion, when there will be, in the most important sense, 
17* 



-I 



198 HELLOLOGY. 

a renovation, or regeneration of heaven and earth, 
when all things shall become new ; yet in a subordi- 
nate sense, it may be said to have been accomplished 
when God came to visit, in judgment, that guilty 
land ; when the old dispensation was utterly abolish- 
ed, and succeeded by the Christian dispensation, into 
which the Gentiles, from every quarter, as well as 
Jews, were called and admitted. 

" Let us now apply these remarks to the texts un- 
der consideration. To enter into life, or to enter 
into the kingdom of God, is in the passage before us 
contrasted with going into, or being cast into hell. 
As the former does not mean to enter into heaven, 
the place of the righteous, but into Christ's kingdom, 
or reign, in this world, so the latter cannot mean, to 
cast into a place of endless misery, but to suffer the 
punishment of which we have seen Gehenna made an 
emblem." Understanding our Lord, " by entering 
into life," or u into the kingdom of God," in this way, 
what he says in this passage to his disciples, was per- 
tinent, and peculiarly suited to their circumstances. 
It was "better,' 1 it was u profitable" for them thus 
to enter into his kingdom with the loss of every thing 
dear to them, rather than retaining these, to be cast 
into hell tire, or to suffer all the dreadful calamities 
foretold by Jeremiah in the predictions considered 
above, and described by our Lord, Matth. 24. At 
the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, the unbe- 
lieving Jews were to suffer the damnation of hell, and 
at this period all his disciples who endured to the end, 
were not only to "Be saved from this punishment, but 
were to enter into his kingdom, or reign with him ; 
and the apostles to sit on twelve thrones, judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel. But such of his professed 
disciples as did not cut off a right hand and pluck out 
a right eye, or did not endure to the end, should share 
in the same calamities, or suffer the punishment of 



HELLQLOGY. 199 

which we have seen Gehenna made an emblem by 
Jeremiah, and also by oar Lord. Whitby, on Luke 
21. 34 — 36. thus writes: — " Here our Saviour calls 
upon the believing Christians to take care, and use 
the greatest vigilance that they do not miscarry in this 
dreadful season, by reason of that excess and luxury 
which may render them unmindful of it, or those 
cares which may render them unwilling to part with 
their temporal concerns, lest they should be involved 
in that ruin which would come on others, as a snare, 
suddenly and unexpectedly ; and that they should add 
to this vigilance constant prayer to God, that they 
may be found worthy to escape those tremendous 
judgments, and might stand safely and boldly before 
the Son of man, when he comes to execute them on 
the unbelieving Jews. 

41 It is easily seen that this passage not only agrees 
with the preceding texts, but also accounts for the 
fact why the Saviour should say so much to the dis- 
ciples concerning hell or Gehenna, and so little to the 
unbelieving Jews. Besides, it also accounts for the 
fact which can never be accounted for on the com- 
mon view of hell, namely, that not a word is said con- 
cerning it to the Gentiles. If the punishment of hell 
be as I have attempted to show, the temporal ven- 
geance which came on the Jewish nation, all is plain, 
consistent, and rational. But how can it ever be ac- 
counted for on rational and Scriptural grounds, that 
no Gentile was ever threatened with such a punish- 
ment ? We are sinners of the Gentiles, and are 
threatened with everlasting punishment in hell by 
preachers in our day. It becomes them to account 
for this, seeing they are without any authority either 
from Christ or his apostles for so doing. If they 
never said a word about hell in their preaching to the 
Gentiles, from what source of information is it learn- 
ed that preachers now are authorized to teach such a 



200 HELLOLOGY. 

doctrine to them ? Are we obliged to receive this 
implicitly on their ipse dixit? 

Relative to the peculiar phraseology of this pas- 
sage, the acute writer quoted above, says : — 

" It is then, said of hell or Gehenna, — " where their 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' 1 Were 
these words understood strictly, and literally of a 
place of endless misery, it would prove that there is 
not only material fire there, but that there are also 
worms in hell. Some have maintained, and a few 
perhaps still maintain, that the fire of hell is a literal 
fire. It is evident that most orthodox preachers still 
continue to speak as if the fire of hell was real, literal 
fire. Why speak about it as such if they do not be- 
lieve it to be so, unless they intend to practise decep- 
tion on the people ? But we presume no one ever 
believed that there were worms in the place called 
hell, or eternal misery. If such an opinion was ever 
held, we are ignorant of it. But why not believe that 
there are worms in hell as well as literal fire ? for if 
Gehenna signifies a place of endless misery, it teaches 
literal fire and literal worms on the same authority ? 
Besides, it is implied that the body is there, for worms 
to feed on, which they could not do on the spirit. I 
am fully aware that the worm that shall never die, 
has been long and universally interpreted to mean 
conscience, which is to torment the subject of it for- 
ever. But this is a private interpretation ; for I do 
not know of a single text in the Bible, in which con- 
science is ever spoken of under the figure of a worm,, 
either in this or a future state of existence. Unless 
then, something like proof of this is produced from 
the Bible, such an interpretation cannot be for a mo- 
ment admitted. It may then be asked, — " what do 
these words mean V Let us hear what Mr. Park- 
hurst says on the words, — " where their worm dieth 
not, and their fire is not quenched.'" He thus writes 



HELLOLOGY. 



201 



on the word Gehenna : — " Our Lord seems to allude 
to the worms which continually preyed on the dead 
carcasses that were cast out into the valley of Hinnom, 
yeewa, and to the perpetual fire there kept up to con- 
sume them. Cornp. Eccies. 7: 17. Judith 16: 17, 
And see the learned Joseph Mede's works, fol. p. 31 .'' 
Here then is a place where their worm dieth not, and 
the tire that shall never be quenched ; not in a place 
of eternal misery in a future state, but in the valley 
of Hinnom, near Jerusalem. Let it now be recol- 
lected, that the valley of Hinnom was made an em- 
blem of the terrible calamities which were to come on 
the Jewish nation. No place was so wretched and 
abominable as the valley of Hinnom, and no place 
known to a Jew, could be made so fit an emblem 
of such miseries. 

"But we have something more to produce, and 
something which we think ought to be admitted as 
conclusive, in determining in what sense our Lord's 
words, ought to be understood in this passage. — It is 
certain then, that our Lord here quotes Isai. 61 : 24. 
where it is said, — " and they shall go forth and look 
Upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed 
against me ; for their worm shall not die, neither shall 
their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring 
unto all flesh." — A remark is made by Mr. Stuart, in 
his letters to Dr. Channing, p. 69. which very well 
applies here. He says, — " it will be remembered that 
the passage in question is a quotation from the Old 
Testament ; and that to quote the language of the Old 
Testament, therefore, in order to explain it, is pecu- 
liarly appropriate and necessary.'" Let us see how 
peculiarly appropriate and necessary this passage from 
the Old Testament is, in explaining the words of our 
Lord before us. Suffer me then to ask, — did Isaiah 
mean a place of endless misery, when he said, " for 
their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be 



202 HELLOLOGY. 

quenched V Was Isaiah so understood when he ut- 
tered these words ? I have to ask further, did the 
Jew's so understand these words when they read them 
in the prophet ? Yea, I ask still further, did our 
Lord's disciples so understand the prophet's words 
when they read them there ? Can any or all of these 
questions, with truth, be answered in the affirmative ? 
As this will not be so much as pretended, how comes 
it to pass that they are made to mean a place of end- 
less misery when quoted by our Lord? By what 
rule of interpretation, do we make Isaiah, by these 
words, only to mean temporal calamities, but when 
our Lord quotes them, we make them to mean end- 
less misery ? I urge this ; on what grounds, and by 
what authority do we make Isaiah and our Lord to 
have two such different meanings to the same words ? 
Yea, I press it upon all who regard the words of the 
living God, to think how it was possible that our 
Lord's disciples could understand him in this sense, 
when those very words were understood by them in 
so very different a sense when they Tead them in the 
prophet? It is evident our Lord did not explain 
them in this new sense to the disciples, nor gave 
the slightest hint that he made any alteration in the 
meaning of the prophet's words by quoting them. 
Until it is therefore proved, that by these words 
Isaiah meant a place of future endless misery, I 
might excuse myself from any further remarks on 
them. But as they very strongly confirm the views 
1 have given of Gehenna or hell, in the preceding 
passages, I proceed. 

" On this passage in the prophet, let it be remark- 
ed, that the chapter in which it stands, evidently re- 
lates to events which were to take place under the 
gospel dispensation. The new heavens and new 
earth, mentioned verse 22, refer to this period, and 
the extension of the gospel to the Gentiles, is repeat- 



HELLOLOGY, 203 

edly spoken of in the course of the chapter. But 
let us attend to the passage, and go over what is 
said in it, and if possible ascertain the meaning of 
the prophet. It is said, — " and they shall go forth, 
and look upon the carcasses of the men that have 
transgressed against me." Let us ask here, who are 
the men referred to, and who are said to have trans- 
gressed against the Lord ? I think the context 
shows them to be the unbelieving, disobedient Jews. 
Evidence ol this will appear as we proceed. Again ; 
let us ask, who shall go forth and look upon the car- 
casses of the Jews who had thus transgressed against 
the Lord ? The preceding verses show that they are 
the persons who worship and obey the Lord. But 
again ; let us ask, to what place they shall go forth 
and look upon the carcasses of the men who have 
transgressed against the Lord 1 Not surely to a 
place of endless misery ? The connexion of this 
with the next part of the passage shows that they 
shall go forth to the place where " their worm dieth 
not, and the fire is not quenched." If it is said, by 
way of objection, — " is not this the place of end- 
less misery, and is not this sufficiently obvious from 
the words, their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched ? 1 must answer, it is not. We think 
this can be proved from a variety of evidence, which 
few, if any, will undertake to dispute. This we 
shall show presently is not the Scripture meaning 
of these expressions, but that they refer to temporal 
punishment and to the punishment of the Jews as a 
nation. Here I would only ask — do any persons 
go forth either from this world or from heaven to a 
place of endless misery, to look upon the carcasses of 
men who have transgressed against the Lord ? Be- 
sides, is it not a very strange mode of speaking, to 
speak of the carcasses of persons in a place of endless 
misery 1 But if we understand this place to be as to- 



204 HELLOLOGY. 

phet, or the valley of Hinnom, all this may be liter- 
ally and affectingly true. We have seen from the 
predictions of Jeremiah, that the Lord was to make 
the city of Jerusalem as tophet, and the carcasses of 
the Jews were to be meat for the beasts of the earth, 
and that they should bury in tophet until there should 
be no place to bury. Besides, we have seen from 
Josephus, the Jewish historian, that six hundred 
thousand of the carcasses of the Jews were carried 
out of the city and left unburied. It is evident then, 
if those who worshipped and obeyed the Lord, did 
not go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men 
who had transgressed against the Lord, it was not 
for want of opportunity. Suffer me, then, to ask, 
might not the worshippers of the Lord, or our Lord's 
disciples, literally go forth and look upon the carcas- 
ses of the men who had transgressed against the 
Lord ? Yea, could they avoid seeing them, and 
looking on them, when they left the city and were 
saved from the dreadful vengeance of God which 
came on the unbelieving part of the nation ? But 
it is added, " and they shall be an abhorring unto 
all flesh." This all will allow to be said to the 
same persons, who, in the former part of the passage, 
are said to have transgressed against the Lord. It 
will be allowed that the Jews had transgressed 
against the Lord in a very great degree. They had 
crucified the Lord of glory, persecuted the apostles, 
they pleased not God, and were contrary to all men. 
In this respect we see that the passage fully applies 
to them. Let us see how the last part also applies 
to them. " And they shall be an abhorring unto all 
flesh." The phrase " all flesh," it could be easily 
shown, is used in Scripture to designate the Gentile 
nations. As one instance, among others which I 
might adduce to prove this, it is said, — " all flesh 
shall see the salvation of God." Now it is literally 



HELLOLOGY. 205 

true that the Jews then were, and still are, in their 
descendants, an abhorring unto all the Gentile na- 
tions. They have been, and still are, a by-word, 
and a reproach, and an afflicted people, among all 
the nations of the earth. How long this is still to 
continue, God only knows. Sure we are, that the 
Lord is yet to have mercy upon Israel : they are 
still beloved for the fathers' sake. The deliverer is 
to come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness 
from Jacob. 

" But let it be noticed, that it is three times said in 
the passage in Mark, where this passage from the 
prophet is is quoted, " where their worm dieth not, 
and the fire is not quenched." Let the question be 
asked, " Whose worm shall not die ? We think the 
answer to this must be looked for in the prophet 
whose words our Lord quotes. The answer is, the 
men who have transgressed against the Lord ; then- 
worm shall not die, and their fire is not quenched. 
Should we recur to the context of the passage in 
Mark for an answer to this question, the only an- 
tecedent to the word their, is the persons who should 
offend Christ's little ones, verse 42. This agrees 
to the answer taken from the prophet ; for the Jews 
were the greatest opposers and persecutors of 
Christ's disciples." 

Having already shown that temporal judgments 
are signified by fire under the old dispensation, we 
have now to show that the addition of everlasting, and 
the declaration that it never shall be quenched, do not 
furnish any additional proof of the proper use, of these 
passages, in the common mode of application. The 
prophet Isaiah furnishes us several specimens of this 
sort, which shall be duly noticed. " And the strong 
shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and 
they shall both burn together, and none shall quench 

18 



206 HELLOLOGY. 

them, 13 Isa. 1 : 31. See also in the 34th chapter as 
follows : 

" For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the 
year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. 
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and 
the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof 
shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched 
night nor day ; the smoke thereof shall go up forev* 
er : from generation to generation it shall lie waste ; 
none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the 
cormorant and the bittern shall possess it ; the owl 
also and the raven shall dwell in it : and he shall 
stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones 
of emptiness.'" 

Here we see that for ever, the same as everlasting, 
is applied to the temporal judgments coming on Jeru- 
salem, and that brimstone and burning pitch are used 
as emblems of destruction,, and that of a temporal na- 
ture. But what shall we understand by for ever in 
this place? answer, from generation to generation, the 
whole time which these prophetic calamities were to 
continue. Jeremiah, in predicting the afflictions 
which should come on this rebellious people, speak- 
ing of the fury which should be poured out upon 
them, says, " it shall burn, and shall not be quenched." 
The same prophet, 4 : 4, says — " lest a fire should be 
kindled which none can quench.'''' But it is perfectly 
obvious, that he is alluding to temporal judgments. 
But Ezekiel is very explicit, 20 : 47, 48. " And say 
to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord ; 
Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will kindle a fire 
in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, 
and every dry tree : the flaming flame shall not be 
quenched, and all faces from the south to the north 
shall be burned therein. 1 ' 

Here then is the fire, the flaming flame, which we 
are twice told shall not-be quenched. But does not 



HELLOLOGY. 207 

the whole scope of the subject show, that all the 
threat includes nothing beyond the sufferings of time ? 
If everlasting burnings in prophetic usage did not sig- 
nify endless misery, how should the Jews who heard 
our Lord, be supposed thus to understand him ? 

That Isaiah, in speaking of everlasting burnings, 
ch. 33 : 14, alluded to the hypocritical, wicked Jews, 
is very obvious by the phraseology. Sinners in Zion 
were said to be afraid, and fearfulness had surprised 
the hypocrites. That the sinners in Zion is a phrase 
peculiarly applicable to the Jewish nation, will not 
be disputed, nor will any man deny that the hypo- 
crites noticed, are the same sinners before mentioned. 
All is then plain. The whole is applied to the Israel- 
itish nation, and to that alone. This also agrees with 
the common language of our Lord, who brands them 
as hypocrites, and pronounces many woes upon. them 
as such. On this subject, we shall take the liberty of 
again quoting Mr. Balfour. 

" Let us consider what kind of punishment the pro- 
phet, in this passage, is speaking about ? It is not 
doubted that he does speak of punishment, for it is 
here alleged that he is speaking of future eternal pun- 
ishment. But from what in the passage is this learn- 
ed ? It is learned, we presume, by those who take 
this view of the text, 1st, From the words fire: and 
burnings being used. But we have shown above, 
that the word fire, is only a figure used in Scripture 
to describe temporal punishment, and is used to de- 
scribe the temporal vengeance which came on the 
Jews, at the destruction of their city and temple. 
This we think is placed beyond all fair debate. 2d, 
We presume eternal misery is supposed to be taught 
in this passage also, from the word everlasting being 
applied to the word burnings. But that the word 
everlasting is applied to temporal punishment, and to 
this very temporal punishment of the Jews, is also 



208 HELLOLOGY. 

beyond a doubt. This has been partly Seen already, 
and we shall see it plainly stated in the next passage. 
When in the passage before us it is said, " who among 
us shall dwell with devouring fire ? Who among us 
shall dwell with everlasting burnings V it is just ex- 
pressing, under another figure, what is expressed in 
the following texts : " how can ye escape the damna- 
tion of hell ?" " who hath warned you to flee from 
the impending vengeance, or wrath to come ?'' That 
both referred to the same period we think may be 
seen from the context. Sec verses 11, 12, 13, 19: 
Something, then, must be discovered in this text more 
than the words fire, burnings, and everlasting, to 
prove that eternal misery in a future state is taught in 
it. Indeed we think had attention been paid to the 
figurative use of the word fire in the Old Testament, 
and the way in which the word everlasting is often 
used there, much perversion of the oracles of God 
might have been avoided. In confirmation of the 
view I have given of this passage, I may add the fol- 
lowing. As in the passage, the condition of the un- 
believing part of the Jewish nation is referred to at 
the destruction of their city and temple, so in the con- 
text the condition of our Lord's disciples is described. 
See verses 15 — 17. From verse 20, to the end of 
the chapter, the peace and prosperity of the Chris- 
tian church is described. We have said enough to 
show that this passage does not teach the doctrine of 
endless punishment in a future state. We have also 
given what we conceive to be the general meaning of 
the prophet. Should we be mistaken as to its true 
sense, yet we think the other never can be proved 
from it. But as we do not wish to depend on any 
text of doubtful meaning in support of our views, we 
shall introduce the following, about which there can 
be no dispute. 



HELLOLOGY, 209 

" The passage I refer to, is Jer. 23 : 39, 40. " There- 
fore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I 
will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and 
your fathers, and cast you out of my presence. And 
I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a 
perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. 1 ' This 
passage affords no room for debate. The Jews are 
the persons spoken about : the punishment threaten- 
ed, all will allow, is of a temporal nature : that it re- 
fers to the punishment which came on the Jews at the 
desruction of their city and temple, will not be doubt- 
ed : and that it is said to be perpetual and everlasting, 
is in as many words declared. I may just notice, that 
the word perpetual, in this last passage, is the same in 
the original as the word everlastings and is the same 
word which is translated everlasting, perpetual, and 
forever, in other passages. After attending to these 
texts we think it will no longer be doubted, that the 
temporal vengeance which came on the Jews at the 
destruction of their city and temple, is called ever- 
lasting, and also is described under the figure ofjire. 
But did the Jews understand the words everlasting or 
perpetual to mean, in these texts, endless duration ? 
We presume this will not be affirmed. It may be 
asked, and it is a very proper question to ask, — How 
comes it to pass, that this punishment of the Jews, of 
a temporal nature, is described as everlasting, perpet- 
ual, as everlasting fire, and a fire that never shall be 
quenched ? To this I answer, that any one who has 
examined the Scriptures on the subject, knows, that 
olm, of the Hebrew, aion, and aionion, of the Greek, 
are often used to express limited duration. They 
are often used to express a shorter or longer period 
of time, as the subjects to which they are applied re- 
quire. I might illustrate this by many examples, if it 
were necessary." 

18* 



V 



210 HELLOLOGY. 

Whatever may be the common understanding of 
the terms everlasting and for ever, one thing is beyond 
dispute — they are so used in connexion with temporal 
sufferings, that the fact of such use cannot be disputed. 
It is also fully believed, that from the mere use of this 
word, a Jew would never conceive the idea conveyed 
to be endless duration. — And, as the Jews most evi- 
dently had no belief in endless sufferings, why did not 
the Saviour, instead of using the language of their 
scriptures, give them to understand that his meaning 
was different from that of their prophets, though he 
couched it in the same words ? When any man can 
give a rational reply to this question, we shall be ready 
to listen. 

We shall now make a remark, on which we are per- 
suaded very little room will be left for debate. The 
language of the NezvTestament is that of the Old* 
Every careful reader must be sensible of this, nor do 
we believe the former will ever be well understood 
without a knowledge of the latter. The expression of 
Mr. Balfour, respecting this remark, is so completely 
to the purpose, that it ought to be cited in this place, 
and never forgotten. The Old Testament is the dic- 
tionary of the language of the New. 

In examining Mat. 19 : 28, let it be recollected, 
that our Lord addressed his immediate disciples, in the 
following language : — " And fear not them which kill 
the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather 
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body 
in hell.'" Compare this with its parallel, Luke 12: 
4, 5, and we will then examine both at the same time. 
You will be pleased to recollect, that this was address- 
ed to friends, and that Gehenna punishment was that 
against which they were to be guarded. We have 
before seen, that no scripture writer ever uses this 
word in allusion to a future, unseen place, but the pe- 
culiarity of the language in this instance, requires that 
it be fairly examined. 



HELLOLOGY. 211 

As the great object of the Messiah was to close the 
old, and to introduce the new dispensation, of which 
the former was but a shadow, of good things to come, 
we find a great proportion of the New-Testament 
parables pointed to this event. As the revolution was 
to be so great, no wonder the Saviour so frequently 
cautioned his disciples to beware of the fate which 
was certainly coming on their country. In this light 
we view this discourse to his disciples. They were 
to endure persecution, and many trials, which an apos- 
tle calls "fiery trials ;'' but these cautions are so nu- 
merous that they need not be cited. The circum- 
stance which may labour in the minds of some very 
honest people, is the use of the word soul, which is by 
common usage considered the spirit, or immortal part 
of man. The word will therefore be particularly ex- 
amined. 

The word +0x1, psuche, here rendered soul, is thus 
rendered from Nephish, of the O. T. In speaking of 
this word, Mr. Pilkington has the following remarks. 
He says, it " is sometimes used expletively, sometimes 
means life, sometimes the whole man, and sometimes 
is applied to the irrational part of creation. '' Among 
its various uses we quote the following: — Gen. 12: 
1 3, my soul shall live because of thee. 1 : 20, let me 
escape thither, and my soul shall live. Exod. 12: 16, 
which every soul must eat. Lev. 5 : 2, if a soul touch 
any unclean thing. 20 : 11, if the priest buy a soul 
with his money. Num. 11:6, our sow/ is dried away : 
31 : 23, one soul of five hundred, both of the men, 
and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep. 
Ps. 57 : 4, my soul is among lions : 106 : 15, he sent 
leanness into their soul. Mat. 2 : 20, they are dead 
which sought the young child's psuhe, or life. 7 : 25, 
take no thought for your life, psuhe — Luke 12: 23, 
the life, psuhe, is more than meat. But the cases are 
so numerous, that one has but to read and satisfy him-* 



212 IffiLLOLOGY. 

self, that the principle laid down is correct. That 
the word is used expletively, or as might otherwise he 
expressed by the word unnecessarily, at least in our 
idiom, in one of these instances, is evident by com- 
paring the different expressions of Matthew and Luke. 
One mentions the destruction of soul and body in hell, 
while the other speaks of God as being able to cast 
into hell. The distinction which appears to obtain 
between the terms soul and body, is a mere Hebraism, 
as is evident from Matthew's account, which is allow- 
ed to have been written in Hebrew. But let us sup- 
pose that both body and spirit, the corporeal and the 
intellectual part of man are here intended, and that by 
hell we are to understand a place of suffering in the 
coining life. Will this agree with the orthodox theo- 
ry ? \^ho of all our opponents, believes that a cor- 
ruptible body, with an immortal spirit, will be con- 
signed to literal fire in a future state? Not one thus 
believes. We know that the body is scattered among 
the elements of which it is composed, and that dust re- 
turns to dust. But perhaps those who see the difficul- 
ty in this view of the text, are ready to refer this to 
the resurrection-state. This is assuming too much, 
for not the least intimation is here given of a resur- 
rection. But it is not said that God will do this. His 
power is represented, not his designs. But, even if 
this were admitted as a certain catastrophe, we have 
no data on which to build the doctrine of endless mise- 
ry. Nay, if we understand kill, and destroy, as equal- 
ly applicable to both body and Spirit, it is very evi- 
dent that annihilation is more probably meant, than 
ceaseless misery, for not the least hint is given of their 
after existence, in either happiness or misery. 

But let us inquire of Paul, if psuhe, life, and pneuma, 
spirit, are both one. He speaks of dividing asunder 
of soul and spirit, Heb. 4 : 12, and again makes the 
same distinction, 1 Thes. 5 : 23. which may be exam- 



HELLOLOGY. 213 

ined at your leisure. But one case more may be cited, 
which ought to put the subject at rest. Christ, when 
on the cross commended his pneuma, spirit, into the 
hands of his Father ; while his psuhe, soul, went to 
hades, in which place it was not left, for the body was 
raised by the power of God, and itspsuhe, life, restor- 
ed. But the context to the passage under considera- 
tion, is explicit as to the meaning of the word render- 
ed soul. Mat. 10: 39. he that findeth his psuhe, life, 
shall lose it. Here it is evident, that our Lord's 
meaning was this : he that refuses to believe me in 
the prediction of that destruction which was at hand, 
will assuredly perish, while those who take my coun- 
sel will be saved from the threatened evil. This we 
find true in point of fact. The unbelieving Jews, 
thought that if the religion of Jesus should prevail, the 
Romans would come and take away both their place 
and nation. His religion was a peaceable, non-resisting 
religion, and they expected a conquering Prince, who 
should free them from the Roman yoke. The dread- 
ful sufferings of the Jews when their city was taken, 
proved the words of the Saviour true. 

One apparent difficulty remains yet to be solved. 
It may be asked, what are we to understand by the 
expression in Luke, which implies, that the destruc- 
tion which God can effect, is after the body is killed. 
Man, indeed, can do no more than dissolve the connex- 
ion between the body and its life, or in other words, 
kill the body. God can, indeed, withhold his power, 
and the life would be annihilated, and were we taught 
by God that he will in any instance thus act, we might 
indeed, strongly assert the doctrine of annihilation, 
but it would be doing nothing in favour of endless 
misery. No power but his who alone hath immortali- 
ty, can preserve the spirit in an immortal state. But 
we must find some very different passage, on which to 
build either tha one or the other dogma. But we shall 



214 HELLOLOGY. 

present a question worthy of due consideration. Does 
killing, or destroying the life, signify continuing it in 
existence in any state 1 When this can be duly an- 
swered, we will find tune to re-cxamiue the subject. 

A vast deal more might be said on this subject, in 
illustration of the foregoing, but we refer the reader 
to Mr. Balfour's 1st Inquiry, and his answer to Rev. 
J. Sabine, as our room will permit no more than a 
single quotation. 

u We have now one remark to make, and we deem 
it conclusive on this subject. Supposing then that 
Gehenna, in the passages under consideration, does 
mean the place of endless misery. Let this be con- 
sidered for argument's sake, a truth: yea, let it also 
be granted that the punishment of this place is of 
endless duration, 1 ask what follows from these pas- 
sages ? It only follows that the body, or if you please, 
hody and soul, or the life, are destroyed there. It 
does not follow that the pneuma, spirit, or immortal 
part, has any concern in this punishment. No ; for 
we have seen them expressly distinguished ; and in 
these passages not a word is said about its being in 
Gehenna, or punished there. No : nothing like this 
is to be found in the Bible. We read there of nephish, 
psuhe,soul, or life, going to Sheol or Hades, and hear 
of its being destroyed in Gehenna ; but do we ever 
read of the pneuma, spirit, being in any of those places? 
No ; at death, it returns to God, who gave it. So far 
from the pneuma, spirit, being tormented, killed, or de- 
stroyed in Gehenna, or any of those places, it is nev- 
er represented as being in them at all. We call on 
any man to produce an instance from Scripture where 
it is ever said the pneuma, spirit, is in Gehenna, or 
killed or destroyed in Gehenna. Though nothing 
like this is to be found in. -the sacred writings, yet peo- 
ple, from the passage we are considering, conclude 
that the immortal spirit of man is to-be killed or de- 



OELLGLOGY. 215 

stroyed in Gehenna. Even in the parable of the rich 
man, it it is not said his pneuma, spirit, was there, or 
tormented in Hades. No such representations are 
given in the Bible, either about Hades or Gehen- 
na. But ought not such representations to be found 
there, if the common belief be the doctrine of Scrip- 
ture ? It certainly is the common opinion that the 
spirits of the wicked go to hell, at death. But from 
what part of the Scriptures do we learn this ? If evi- 
dence of such a doctrine is to be found there, let it be 
produced.' ' 

James 3 : 6, is the last place in which we find Ge- 
henna in the N. T. And that it is here used in a 
figurative sense, no one will dispute. " And the tongue 
is a fire, a world of iniquity : so is the tongue among 
our members, that it defileth the whole body, and set- 
teth on fire the course of nature ; and it is set on fire 
of hell.'' In examining this passage, we believe few 
would be such fanatics, as to declare that the fire which 
kindles on the tongue, was lighted in a place of end- 
less misery, or even in the literal Gehenna to which 
James alluded. Every one may see, that the apostle 
alludes to the impurities of Gehenna, with which the 
pollutions of the tongue are compared. But this is 
illustrated by other passages of scripture. For in- 
stance, we are told that iniquity burnetlr like fire ; and 
Peter advises, that he who would see good days, should 
refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they 
speak no guile. Our Lord also speaks of the tongue 
in a similar manner, when he says, that out of the heart 
proceed blasphemies, evil speaking, &c. But we need 
go no further into this subject than our own observation. 
How many families, churches, societies, communi- 
ties, and whole nations are set on fire by the improper 
use of the tongue ! Nay, look at the desolating wars 
which blacken the page of history, and the almost in- 
extinguishable fires of wrath which are kindled by the 



216 HELLOLOGY. 

tongue, and then say whether James was correct, while 
picturing the effect of this member, by the pollutions 
and miseries of Gehenna, so well known to the Jews. 
The apostle was a Jew, and wrote to the Jew?, as is 
evident by a look at his introduction. That he should 
draw an illustration of his subject from those cir- 
cumstances with which those to whom he wrote were 
acquainted, is certainly very probable. The epistle 
was most certainly intended for the Jews, and for them 
alone ; and not only for Jews, but for believing Jews. 
We have not a particle of evidence, that the Jews, in 
the time of the apostles, conceived any different idea 
from the use of the term Gehenna, than did their 
fathers : Nor have we the least intimation, that the 
writer intended his epistle for the use of the Gentiles. 
So far from this, that an examination will show that 
the peculiar situation of his countrymen at that time 
elicited the epistle. No evidence has yet been pro- 
duced, that Gehenna was ever deemed, by the Israel- 
ites, the name of a place of punishment, excepting as 
understood by the valley of Hinnom. 

In closing this examination, we have only to say, 
that as far as the arguments have gone, we have no 
fear of refutation. We believe that the facts produ- 
ced, are indisputable, and that the inferences are per- 
fectly conclusive. That we differ from highly respect- 
ed names, is no just reason why the most obvious 
truth, and the most legitimate criticism, should be con- 
sidered with an evil eye. Claiming no better rule 
than that laid down by Dr. Campbell, and others, we 
are willing that our production should be submitted to 
the strictest scrutiny. Dr. C. says — " ecclesiastical 
ose is no security that the word, though it be under- 
stood, conveys to us the same idea, which the original 
term did to those to whom the gospels were first pro- 
mulgated. In a former dissertation, the fullest evi- 
dence has been given, that in regard to several words, 



HELLOLOGY. £17 

the meaning which has long been established by eccle- 
siastical use, is very different from that which they 
have in the writings of the New-Testament/' Again 
he says — " the opinion of Grotius and some learned 
Rabbis, unsupported by either argument or example, 
nay, in manifest contradiction to both, is here of no 
weight. Scriptural usage alone must decide the ques- 
tion. These commentators (with all deference to 
their erudition and abilities be it spoken) being com- 
paratively modern, cannot be considered as ultimate 
judges in a question depending entirely on an ancient 
use, whereof all the evidences that were remaining in 
their time, remain still, and are as open to our exam- 
ination, as they were to theirs. In other points where 
there may happen to be in Scripture an allusion to 
customs or ceremonies retained by the Jews, but un- 
known to us, the case is different. But nothing of 
this kind is pretended here.'" 

We now conclude this section, by two quotations 
from Mr. Stuart's Letters to Mr. Channing, which are 
worthy of perpetual remembrance. " The claims of 
the Bible to be authoritative being once admitted, the 
simple question in respect to it, is, what does it teach 
in regard to any particular passage ; what idea did 
the original writer mean to convey 1 When this is 
ascertained by^the legitimate rules of interpretation, 
it is authoritative. This is orthodoxy in the highest 
and best sense of the word ; and every thing which is 
opposed to it, which modifies it, which fritters its 
meaning away, is heterodoxy, is heresy ; to whatever 
name or party it is attached." " After all, it is a prin- 
ciple, by which, if I have any knowledge of my owa 
heart, I desire forever to be guided, to 'call no man 
master on earth.' I would place the decision of 
Scripture, fairly made out, immeasurably above all hu- 
man opinions. I regard the one as the decision of 
an unerring God ; the other as the opinions of 'fallible 
men." 19 



218 HELLOLOGY. 



ADDENDA. 

We here take the liberty of inserting two extracts 
from Rev. J. S. Thompson's Christian Guide, being a 
new translation, and a select commentary. u Whoso- 
ever shall be unjustly angry with his brother, shall be 
accountable to the Judges ; and whosoever shall call 
his brother vile man, shall be exposed to the sentence 
of the Sanhedrim ; but whosoever shall say apostate 
wretch, shall be held a bond slave in the fiery Gehen- 
na." 

Appended to the above, is the following note for its 
illustration. " For the illustration of this obscure pas- 
sage, which has long puzzled the Commentators, and 
spread terror in the ranks of the superstitious, there 
appears nothing more needed, than to simply state the 
facts to which our Lord alludes. Here are three 
degrees of crime mentioned, and three degrees of 
punishment respectively annexed to each, proportion- 
ate to the powers invested in the three courts of Judi- 
cature, held among the Jews. The crimes are; 1, 
causeless anger ; 2, anger accompanied with expres- 
sions of insult and contempt ; 3, hatred and detesta- 
tion accompanied with execration. The two first are 
threatened with temporal punishment, or the ani- 
madversions of the Jewish tribunals ; and it is highly 
analagous to our Master's reasoning, that the punish- 
ment annexed to the last, should be also temporal, see- 
ing the crime was the same in nature, as the second, 
though somewhat aggravated. On the contrary, to 
suppose with many commentators, that for the little 
difference of saying fool instead of simpleton, our 
Lord should pass from such a sentence as a Jewish 
court could pronounce, to the awful doom of eter- 
nal punishment in hell-fire, is what cannot be re- 
conciled to any rational rule of faith, or known 



HELLOLOGY. 210 

measure of justice. This opinion will be found un- 
tenable from attention to the construction of the 
Greek. In the former instances, the construction 
is svo^oc; Tt\ xf»£sj — <rw tfuvg^iw, but in the third, it is s»s 
yeswa, implying that the person should be held a bond 
slave, in Gehenna. Now as Gehenna or Gehinnom, 
was a valley in the vicinity of Jerusalem, appointed 
by Josiah to be the desecrated spot for the deposit 
and combustion of the dead carcasses, and offal of ani- 
mals, and other filth of the city, we must necessarily 
infer, that a great number of persons must be continu- 
ally employed in carrying all kinds of filth of the city, 
and offal of the sacrifices into this valley, and in sup- 
plying fuel and attending to the fires. This employ- 
ment must have been the most degrading, in the esti- 
mation of a Jew, to which any human being could be 
devoted ; and if we admit, that in the days of Christ, 
the power of life and death was taken from the Jews 
by the Romans, as appears from their acknowledg- 
ment to Pilate : It is not lawful for us to put any man to 
death, John 18 : 31, it will follow that sentence to the 
slavery of Gehenna was the deepest degradation to 
which they could consign their convicts. As it was 
not therefore in the power of the Jewish court, to 
hang, stone, or bum, the punishments were whipping, 
the stocks, and slavery, and these and similar punish- 
ments were all that Christ either meant or implied in 
this passage." 

The following is the other extract, with its illustra- 
tion, which are both submitted to the careful exami- 
nation of the public, with our earnest desire that they 
may serve to free the mind from the difficulties which 
are often associated with this passage : — 

" Ye have heard that it was said : Thou shalt not 
commit adultery. But I say to you, Whosoever looks 
on a married woman to cherish impure desire, has al- 
ready committed adultery with her in his heart 



220 IIELLOLOGY. 

Therefore, if even your right eye lead you to sin, put 
it out and cast it from you ; for it is more profitable 
for you to lose one member than that your whole body 
be cast into Gehenna. And if the right hand ensnare 
you, cut it off and cast it away ; it is better to lose one 
member, than that the whole body be cast intd 
Gehenna.'" 

" The meaning is, that it is better for a man to 
restrain and mortify the strongest and most impetuous 
passion of his nature, than endanger life and character 
by its indulgence. The sin of adultery was uniform- 
ly punished with death among the Jews, Levit. 20 : 
10 ; Deut. 22 ; 22. In many cases, the sentence was 
executed by stoning to death in Gehenna. This was 
done in the following order. The first or chief wit- 
ness, led the guilty bound to an eminence, and cast 
him down on a great stone at the bottom. The sec- 
ond witness stood prepared with another great stone 
to cast down on his breast. If he still lived, the spec- 
tators rushed towards him and stoned him till he died. 
Thus his body was cast into Gehenna. But in many 
instances adultery, as well as incest, sodomy, and 
bestiality, were punished by burning to death in Ge- 
henna. Hence our Lord wisely and justly observed, 
that it was better to lose even a right eye, or hand, 
meaning merely the mortification of the most ardent 
desire, than to suffer the destruction of the whole 
body in Gehenna. Moreover, lest any should think 
his religion would afford a. greater liberty for licen- 
tiousness, than the law of Moses, he cautiously warn- 
ed them, that even the fostering of impure desire, in 
the manner described in the text, should be accounted 
equal, in turpitude, to the sin forbidden by the letter 
of the law.'' 

We have now examined the original words render- 
ed hell, in the authorised version, and find that they 
afford no ground for believing that the use of either 



HELLOLOGY. 221 

was ever applied by the N. T. writers, to a place of 
endless misery. As to Gehenna, the word to which 
alone the orthodox clergy of candour and information 
cling as to their dernier resort, we have not been able 
to ascertain that the O. T. writers ever used it in this 
sense. Under the new dispensation, we find that it is 
evidently used in the same sense as by the prophets, 
and in no instance, do we find that Christ used it in a 
new sense. No intimation is given, that he explained 
it as expressing a sense different from his predecessors, 
nor do we learn that his disciples, to whom he most 
frequently mentioned it, ever suggested that they un« 
derstood it in a manner varying from the received 
custom. It was never used in the preaching of the 
apostles, to any one, whether Jew or Gentile, and but 
one of the apostles uses it at all, and he but once, and 
that to the Jews, and in a figurative manner. Added 
to this, the most able scholars freely grant, that no 
such meaning as that to which the moderns apply it, 
was known to the ancients. But besides this, no per- 
son has yet been able to show how Gehenna came to 
be used as we find it in modern practice : By refer- 
ring to heathen opinions, we find indeed, something 
like it, but if we receive it from them, let us give it 
up as a doctrine of revelation. If however, the tenet 
of endless misery can be supported by the use of this 
word, it seems astonishing that the fathers of the 
Jewish church were left in total ignorance respecting 
it ; and still more strange, that the head and great 
apostle of the new system, never revealed it to his 
disciples, to whom he gave extraordinary powers in- 
proof of their divine mission. 

Under all these circumstances, shall we say, on 
mere conjecture, that the use of this word justifies 
us in its common acceptation ? We think no analo- 
gy justifies this course ; and besides this, the im- 
mense importance of the tenet forbids the idea, that 
19* 



222 HELLOLOGY. 

it would so long be left in darkness. That false doc- 
trines may grow out of true, and that false glosses 
may accumulate until the true meaning is obscured, 
will not be denied by those who are at all acquainted 
with history. But the charge of Protestants against 
the Catholic church is sufficient proof of this, as is 
also the reproof of Jesus to the Pharisees, who had 
made void the law of God by their traditions. But 
the labouring oar is in the hand of our opponents. 
Let them show that the terms which we have exam- 
ined did originally signify as the moderns assert, and 
the victory is theirs. But we shall not yield the 
palm without due proof. 



&.&&1EV Off fflffiPEBB 



ftook arftfvtt. 



Containing arguments to show that all souls of men are altered 
for the better beyond the grave, — made holy and endlessly 
happy. 

SECTION X. 

Statement of the argument — Home-made Scripture — No soul 
fit for heaven while in the body — The Almighty knew, of 
course decreed the destiny of all souls before he created 
them. 

We have, we think, already refuted the doctrine, 
taught by some people, that justice requires the end- 
less misery, or punishment, of any intelligent being, — 
but there is another doctrinal notion held by many, 
which we have not yet considered, in this work, 
which is, that, as many souls are going out of the body, 
and world daily, in a state of sinfulness, and unrecon- 
ciliation to their Maker, and as there is no alteration 
in the soul for the better, beyond the grave, millions 
of millions of such must be miserable as long as God 
exists. 

The conclusion to be inferred from the above 
Earned doctrines, on the supposition of its truth, is of 
serious consideration, and is the source of much mise- 
ry, to thousands of men in this life, particularly of 
parents ; we will, therefore, bestow some serious at- 
tention, on the subject, for the benefit of man general- 
ly — and with much propriety the writer can say, 



224 IMPROVEMENT IN 

u Homo sum, et humana a me nil alinum puto. v — I 
am a man, and nothing which relates to man, can be 
foreign to mj bosom. 

In the first place, we must remark, that the sup- 
postion, that souls do not undergo any alteration for 
the better, after the death of the body, is only a sup- 
position. Should the supposition however, be sup- 
ported by the testimony of divine scripture, we grant 
it would substantiate a very formidable, and perhaps, 
an unanswerable objection against the final holiness 
and happiness of all men. We have often heard the 
objection made, but have never discovered any evi- 
dence from scripture to support it. The opposers of 
the doctrine of universal salvation, being sensible of 
the want of scripture testimony to support their sup- 
position, have very liberally, been at the expense of 
making some. The notable passage which they have 
coined and brought into very common use, is not to 
be found in the divine scriptures, but is often to be 
heard from the pulpit, is recited in their writings, and 
used in the arguments of the ignorant. It is as follows : 
** As the tree falls, so it lies — As death leaves us, so 
judgment will find us. 1 ' We will not, here, contend 
about a different explanation of this alteration of scrip- 
ture, but will only say ; that if the thing be true, ac- 
cording to the views of those who make the scripture, 
and its inference, viz. that souls cannot be altered for 
the better after death. ;ill christian people must remain 
eternally as unsanctificd, as they are in this world of 
carnality and infirmity, and of course be eternally 
miserable, as there can be no happiness without holi- 
ness. 

This unavoidable consequence is a circumstance of 
which, perhaps, the reader has never before thought, 
and we are sure, that those who make objections to 
the doctrine of universal holiness and happiness, and 
particularly, the part we are now about illustrating, 



ANOTHER STATE. 225 

are not aware. It is true, some christian professors 
believe in the existence of earthly perfection, to 
whom the arguments of scripture and reason would 
be of no value, their ignorance of the spiritual per- 
fection of the moral law, and of their own hearts, is 
so great ; but most christians believe and feel, that 
the spirit, while connected with the body, is carnally 
affected, very wickedly inclined, and like the soul of 
the Apostle Paul, subjected to sin and death, and they 
know that " to be carnally minded is death,'' and that 
they cannot do the things that they would, but do 
those which they abhor. And yet those same people 
will believe, that, as they fall so they will lie, as 
death leaves them so judgment will find them : .that 
there is no chance of an alteration of the soul for the 
better beyond the grave. We know that many of 
such believers have been taken out of the present 
state of existence, without a moment's warning, or 
time for preparation, with all their imperfections, of 
ignorance of the nature and character of God — of 
carnality — of their hearts full of the love of created 
and sensual objects — of selfwill, and pride ; and if no 
alteration can be effected, dreadful, indeed, will be 
the consequences to such souls. No situation in the 
universe can afford them a heaven — there is no hap- 
piness for unholy souls ; God himself cannot make 
them happy, until he makes them holy. 

It may be suggested, by some, that, although all 
souls are not made holy during their present life, yet 
all whom God has ordained for eternal glory, in their 
next state of existence, he will sanctify, even in the 
hour or moment of their death, but cannot, or will not, 
after they have left the body. To this view of the 
gubject, we object, and could assign many reasons 
why we dispute the hypothesis, but one or two will 
answer. 



226 IMPROVEMENT IN 

All persons will own, that the soul prepares itself 
for heaven, or that God prepares it, if it is prepared 
at all. Now if the soul prepares itself, it certainly 
has a much better opportunity, when not under the 
dying pains of the body — at which time very little ad- 
vances can be made in the knowledge of the divine 
being ; and yet it is absolutely necessary to know God 
and Christ correctly, to have life eternal. Read the 
w r ords of the Saviour — " This is life eternal, that they 
should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent. 1 ' If God prepare the 
soul for heaven, surely he can as well do it before 
the hour of death. But we contend that God does 
not, cannot operate on the soul to qualify it for hea- 
ven, while under the alarming influence of wordly 
sorrow, and animal fear. To qualify the soul for 
heaven, requires the presentation of divine truth to 
the reflection of reason, and the cordial assent of all 
the feelings of the soul, so as to enlist the best affec- 
tions to God — to make the soul love God with all the. 
mind and strength — and a time is required for this 
other than the dismal hour of death. 

Secondly. — From the above remarks, we see, that 
no scriptures disprove the supposition, which we in- 
tend supporting ; viz. that there can, and will be an 
alteration in the soul, for the better, after death — and 
we also see, that to deny the belief, would involve 
consequences we know not how to reconcile with our 
ideas of holiness, being the very essence of heaven, or 
happiness ; we will, therefore, exhibit our favourite 
supposition, that an alteration does take place in the 
soul, for the better, after death. The reader will re- 
mark, that we do not pretend to argue, that there is 
any scripture direct to prove the point at issue, but we 
believe it to be a fact, and we think, we may with 
propriety, offer one supposition to another, and we 
think we can support ours with better reason, much 



ANOTHER STATE. 227 

more pleasantly, with greater good to man, and com- 
fort to the human family than they can theirs, who 
hold to the propriety of the existence of an eternal 
fire and brimstone, to torment the souls endlessly, in 
all who die without holiness, to which none can attain 
in the body. 

First, then, in support of the doctrine, that the soul 
may be, and is altered for the better after the death of 
the body, we will reason from the nature of the soul 
itself. And here we must remark, that there are two 
opinions held by theologians, now, as was also, by 
philosophers of antiquity, relative to the origin of 
souls. 

One of the opinions, thus held, is, the pre-existenee 
of souls — that they did exist in a separate state in the 
exercise of all their faculties in perfection, long be- 
fore they were connected with the mortal body, and 
from which state they fell by some deviation from the 
line of moral rectitude, and are now associated with 
flesh " whose foundation is in the dust," by the order 
of divine goodness, for the purpose of purification, and 
introduction to an u eternal weight of glory. 1 " 

The other opinion is, that souls are produced by 
-ordinary generation, of course come into their first 
existence at the formation of the body, but did not 
exist previously. Without approving, or disapprov- 
ing either of the above noted opinions, we proceed to 
argue the point at issue, and will here remark, that if 
•either of those opinions be true, we shall, under the 
circumstances, be supported in the belief, that the 
soul can, and will undergo, an alteration for the better, 
beyond the grave. 

In the first place, we will take for granted that 
isouls do come into their first state of existence, by 
means of ordinary generation. If this hypothesis be 
correct, we perceive that the Almighty is constantly 
producing intelligences whom he knows will in some 



223 IMPROVEMENT IN 

degree be miserable during their earthly existence,, 
and the greater part of whom will be inexpressibly 
and endlessly wretched. For, as the orthodox assert 
that no mere man since the fall has been able per- 
fectly to keep the law of God, so our experience is 
the best rule of judging what will be in future. If the 
Jaw of God miis* be perfectly kept, and no man in 
this state of existence is competent to keep it, then 
indeed, no man can in this life purify himself, fit for 
those mansions of perennial blessedness, which are 
without alloy, and without end. 

Now, we will appeal to the good sense of the reader, 
whether he can believe that the Almighty, after hav- 
ing seen the continual failure of the soul to effect its 
own happiness during life, in its purification, so as to 
secure eternal happiness in the future state, and a sal- 
vation from endless misery, would still persist in af- 
fording man the power to propagate his kind, to be the 
instrument in the hand of God, of producing more and 
more intelligences, millions of whom he must know, 
will meet the same miserable fate of the vast numbers 
who have already left the body, and who are said now 
to be gnawing their tongues with pain. The reader 
we are sure, will say that he cannot believe, that an 
all-wise, all powerful, and all good being would do 
any such thing. It will not do to say, that the Al- 
mighty does not know whether the souls that are thus 
brought into existence, by his power, will fail of fu- 
ture happiness, or not ; for he is all-wise, and as 
the divine scriptures state, " known unto him are 
all his ways from the beginning.'" Should any, how- 
ever, have so low an idea of the God of all wis- 
dom, as to suppose that he is ignorant, when he 
creates the soul, what will be its destiny, or what 
use it will make of its privileges, yet they ought to 
think that the experience which he has had, for these 
six thousand years, or as some will have it, of a hun- 



ANOTHER STATE. 229 

dred thousand, ought to have instructed him, in this 
very important subject : but it is almost blasphemy to 
admit such a supposition, to accommodate the igno- 
rance of any. 

Now we will reason thus — The Almighty is contin- 
ually, (by the means of the ordinary generation of 
man) producing intelligences, the present, but par- 
ticularly, the eternal future happiness of whom he 
desires, and to secure which he has done, and con- 
tinues to do much, as illustrated in his works of crea- 
tion, providence and redemption — but according to 
the supposition which we dispute, will be granted in 
favour of but few only, because of the inefficacy of the 
means which he has provided for that purpose, or, the 
shortness of the time allowed in which to effect it. 

Now it is certain, that to one of the above named 
causes, we must attribute the failure of the salvation 
of any soul who may be lost, and to no other cause 
whatever, for the divine scripture uniformly declares 
that it is the will of God to have all men to be saved, 
and that "Christ gave himself a ransom for all." 
Now the reader may take his choice of the above 
noted courses to account for the damnation of any 
soul — If he says it is owing to the inefficacy of the 
means which God has appointed, he must then ac- 
knowledge that God could have appointed means suf- 
ficiently efficacious ; and that if he seriously wished 
the salvation, or purification of all souls in this life, he 
would certainly have done it, as he possesses the 
power so to do — but as he has not, (as it appears to 
us) we must conclude — " to justify the ways of God to 
man" — that the means which he has provided, are 
sufficiently efficacious. If then, we allow that the 
means which God has provided to. effect the final pu- 
rification and salvation of all souls, one of two infer- 
ences is unavoidable, either, that all souls ultimate- 
ly, will be purified and saved, by them, while in the 

20 



230 IMPROVEMENT IN 

body, or that the means will extend in their applica- 
tion and operation beyond the grave, to the benefit of 
those souls, who are not purified while in the body. 
The reader may choose which alternative he pleases ; 
but we shall believe that the means which God has 
thought fit to use for the purification and eternal hap- 
piness of the soul, will be applicable to its benefit be- 
yond the grave to those who are not purified while in 
the body, and we think none are. 



SECTION ZZ. 

Reasonable arguments offered — The carnal mind the cause of 
sin — The facilities of the disimbodied soul to attain holiness 
— No authority to believe God is limited in his designs with 
the soul to the time of this life — All believe the soul can ex- 
ist after death with all its faculties, — why not then be improv- 
ed by means. 

First, — then, as remarked above, it appears pretty 
clear, from common observation, and even, from Scrip- 
ture account, that many souls leave the body in a very 
wicked and unholy state of feeling, — with much en- 
mity against God, entirely unreconciled to his will, of 
course without love to him, which is the very essence 
of heaven itself. Now although we will own, that 
the Almighty can eradiate any degrees of enmity 
from any soul, in any moment of time^ and fill it with 
pure love to overflowing, yet we prefer believing, that 
he acts relative to the purifiction of the soul, in a 
regular and progressive manner. We are constrained 
to adopt this opinion, from what we see of the ways of 
God in his works, but in particular of the soul of man. 

When we first discover the existence of the soul in 
the body, it appears to be small and feeble — grows by 
slow and progressive degrees, till at length it becomes, 
as it were, large and strong — capable of sustaining 



ANOTHER STATE. 231 

much, knowing much, feeling much, and enjoying an 
eternal weight of glory in the future state. 

Again we discover different degrees of intellectual 
improvement in this life, and that generally the most 
extensive is in proportion to the length of time allow- 
ed to make it, and the worth of means afforded. From 
these remarks, or rather from the principles upon 
which they are predicated, we infer, that the Almighty 
makes use of means, for the purification of all those 
souls — if any — that are purified and fitted in this mor- 
tal state, for heaven. 

Secondly. — As we believe that all souls, ultimately 
will be made holy, of course eternally happy ; but 
cannot believe thai all souls, if any, are made holy in 
any period of their mortal state, and know that holi- 
ness and happiness, are inseparably connected ; we 
must believe, that they can be altered beyond the 
grave, for the better — and that the means which God 
uses to purify them while in the body, and which proves 
partially efficacious, will extend in their operation to 
the next state of the existence of the soul that may 
need their application, and we believe all will. 

To extend the argument, in support of our hypothe- 
ses, we will remark, that it is the doctrine of the 
scripture and of daily experience also, that it is owing 
to the influence of the carnal, or fleshly nature of man, 
or what ought to be called his animal spirits, that he 
departs from the divine law, nor loves God supremely, 
and that from the circumstance of the association of 
the soul with this body of sin, arise all the crimes 
and miseries of man. Now if this be the case with 
man, which no one, we presume, will deny, we ask, 
if it does not seem likely, that the soul could attend 
better to the means of purification when divested of 
this body, than it can while associated with it, and 
while under the influence of bad example ? We think 
it can. 



232 IMPROVEMENT IN 

When the soul is disimbodied, it will not only be 
entirely clear from the influence of the earthly, carnal 
nature, which is directly opposed to the nature of God, 
hut it will see as it never saw before. While the 
soul is confined to this body it has to grope in the dark, 
it sees te through a glass darkly,' 1 is often deceived — 
the light that may guide some aright, leads others to 
bewilder, and dazzle to blind ; but when divested of 
its prison of clay, its sight will be clear, and its knowl- 
edge great. The Saviour said, " This is life eternal 
that they should know thee the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ whom thou art sent.'" Now to have a cor- 
rect knowledge of God, is to enable or cause the soul 
to love him, and " every one that loveth is born of 
God, and knoweth God.'' Now, " he that loveth not, 
knoweth not God, for God is love.'' Again, " Whoso- 
ever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." 
See 1 John. From these scriptures, it is plain, that 
the acquisition of divine knowledge is the means ap- 
pointed by God for the purification, and eternal hap- 
piness of the soul, and it is evident enough that this 
knowledge is not, cannot be attained in this life, io 
any considerable perfection. If any do, we have nev- 
er in all our religious observation discovered the ef- 
fect, which such knowledge is said in scripture, to 
produce — such as " casting out fear,' 1 and other high 
attainments of heavenly mindedness. But if we will 
admit the testimony of the scriptures, we will believe, 
" we shall see him (God) as he is" when divested of 
the body, and "know that when he shall appear 1 ' to 
us, " as he is, we shall be like him 11 see 1 John 3. 

Thus it is clearly to be understood, that no soul can 
attain to a correct knowledge of God while in the 
body, and yet such a knowledge is absolutely necessa- 
ry to obtain the requisite qualification of holiness and 
eternal glory ; but it is as clearly to be learned from 
scripture, that this knowledge is to be obtained by all 



ANOTHER STATE, 233 

souls often they are divested of the body, and thereby 
enabled to see God " as he is,' 1 which sight will trans- 
form them and " change them into the same image, 
from glory to glory.'" We learn, from scripture also, 
that those, " every man 1 ' who have this belief of the 
Universalist — "this hope in him, purities himself; 
even as he (God) is pure." Away then with the false 
notion, that the doctrine of universal salvation will 
encourage men in crimes, when the truth is " every 
man that hath this hope purifies himself." And when 
he is admitted to see God as he is will be made like 
him, and sustain an " eternal weight of glory." O ! 
glorious hope, how it transports the spirit to things 
above ! here it uncleaves the affections of the heart 
from earthly objects, and makes it willing, yes, even 
anxious to leave its clay, and journey to the heavenly 
worlds to see its father and its God. 

The above evidences of Scripture testimony, and 
remarks correspond with the declaration of the Saviour 
to the Apostle Paul — see Acts 26: who was to be 
made the means of turning the people from darkness 
to light, to be sanctified by faith, by a correct knowl- 
edge of God. As remarked above, God makes use of 
the works of creation, of his providence, and the histo- 
ry of the events of redemption ; that is, the manifesta- 
tion of his love to man by the acts of the Saviour Je- 
sus Christ, to bring the soul to know and love him 
while in the body, and we knew of no other way, for 
by nature, the world of man knows nothing about 
God, they are without God in the world — must be 
taught to know him, but all the teaching given in life 
is through the channel of human imperfection, and an- 
swers but little purpose, to that which will be taught 
to the soul in a disimbodied state, under the full vis- 
ion of the Divine being. Here it can see, and know 
more of the glorious character of the God of love, in 
one hour of time, than it could in many years in the 
20* 



234 IMPROVEMENT IN 

body, by the best facilities ever afforded to man. It 
can better appreciate his wisdom, and love — can dis- 
cover that all the providential dealings of God to- 
wards it while in the body, flowed through the chan- 
nel of God's love — can then learn that good was Jeho- 
vah in bestowing sun shine, and no less good in the 
storm and thunder. 

The soul, in this unfettered state, can see the divine 
parent, without a vail between, can love him who is 
love, and adore him with its most warm and ardent af- 
fection — can join the rapturous song with every other 
creature, which is in heaven, and on the earth, and 
such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, in as- 
cribing, blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be 
unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb, for ever and ever. Rev. 5. 

And now what scripture, or reason, can we find to 
oppose the cheering belief, we have advanced for its 
support— that all souls will be altered for the better 
beyond the grave, in the future state ; we know of no 
scripture which can be brought for that purpose, and 
few reasons — all is on the side of the supposition. 

If God sincerely wishes the eternal holiness and 
happiness of all souls, and no one will dare to say he 
does not ; nor can any believe that he lacks the power 
to accomplish the objects of his will ; it will then fol- 
low of course, that if his will in this respect is not ac- 
complished, in one period and situation of the soul's 
existence, it can, and will be in another. 

Why is it that any have, in their belief and doctrine, 
limited the time of the dealings of God with the soul 
for its purification to about seventy years, and its situ- 
ation to its association with the body. No one has 
been authorised to believe that to be the fact — No 
one can produce the least scripture authority to sup- 
port the belief. No one is guiltless who preaches such 
a doctrine to others, for divine truth. We challenge 



ANOTHER STATE. 235 

any man on earth to show divine authority for so be- 
lieving and teaching. 

Every one believes, that the soul can exist after it 
leaves the body, if it did not before, and.can, not only 
retain all its present faculties entire, but be enlarged in 
its capacities, and susceptibilities; if this be correct, 
why then, can it not in this state, be led to know and 
love God perfectly, whom to know is eternal life. 
We know that the soul of an infant neither knows nor 
loves God, until it is instructed, relative to his charac- 
ter and designs of love, when it loves God, because it 
learns that he loves it. 

SECTION III. 

The good and wise believe that God has not left the final desti- 
ny of man to his own actions aad opinions — Remarks of Ad- 
dison — Query relative to the situation of the soul after death 
— How God wilf sanctify the soul after it leaves the body. 

Almost all of the good and wise who have spoken 
or written on the subject under consideration, have ex- 
pressed a belief, that God has not left the eternal con- 
dition of his intelligent offspring, on so precarious a 
foundation, as their own mutable feelings and actions ; 
but that he has not only decreed the destiny of the 
soul, but the means to secure it. This belief is ne- 
cessary, to justify the ways of God to man. From 
among the opinions of many eminent writers, we will 
select a few remarks from the celebrated Addison, who 
thus writes. 

64 How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that 
the soul, which is capable of increasing perfection, and 
of receiving neAv improvements to all eternity, shall 
fall away into nothing, [or as some will have it, into a 
hell of fire and brimstone to be tormented eternally. 



236 IMPROVEMENT IN 

where its existence is worse than none] almost as soon 
as it* is created. Are such abilities made for no pur- 
pose ? A brute arrives at a point of perfection that he 
can never pass ; in a few years he has all the acquire- 
ments, he is capable of, and were he to live ten thou- 
sand more, would be the same thing he is at present. 
Were a human soul, thus at a stand in its accomplish- 
ment — were its faculties to be full blown, and incapa- 
ble of further enlargement — I could imagine it would 
fall away insensibly, and drop at once into a state of 
annihilation. 11 "But can we believe, that a thinking 
being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvement, 
and travelling on from perfection to perfection ; after 
having just looked abroad into the works of its Crea- 
tor, and made a few discoveries of his infinite good- 
ness, wisdom and power, must perish at its first setting 
out, and in the beginning of its inquiries?' 1 

" Man, considered only in his present state, seems 
gent into the world merely to propagate his kind. He 
provides himself with a successor, and immediately 
quits his post to make room for him. He does not 
seem to enjoy life ; but to deliver it down to others. 
This condition is not surprising to consider in animals 
which are made for man's use, and which can furnish 
their business in a short time. The silk-worm, after 
having spun her task, lays her eggs and dies — but a 
man cannot take in his full measure of knowledge — has 
not time to subdue his passions, establish his soul in 
virtue, and come up to the perfection of his nature, 
before he is hurried off the stage. Would an infinite- 
ly wise being make such glorious creatures for so mean 
a purpose? Can he delight in the production of such 
abortive intelligences — such short lived reasonable 
beings,' 1 [but some may believe he can delight to tor- 

* We have used the neuter gender of the pronoun, where the 
soul is alluded to or named. Mr. Addison used the feminine 
gender. 



i 



ANOTHER STATE. 237 

merit them in hell eternally.] " Would he give us tal- 
ent that are not to be exerted ? Capacities that are 
never to be gratified? 1 ' 

" How can we find that wisdom that shines through 
all his works, in the formation of man, without looking 
on this world as only a nursery for the next : and 
without believing that the several generations of ra- 
tional creatures which rise up, and disappear in such 
quick succession, are only to receive their first rudi- 
ments of existence here, and afterwards to be trans- 
planted into a more friendly clime, where they may 
spread and flourish to all eternity. 

" There is not, in my opinion, a more pleasing con- 
sideration, (that can interest the heart of man, arising 
from the information of the scriptures) than this, of the 
perpetual progress which the soul makes towards the 
perfection of its nature, without a possibility of ever 
arriving at a period in it. 

" To look upon the soul as going on from strength 
to strength — to consider, that it is to shine forever 
with new accessions of glory, and brighten to all eter- 
nity — that it will still be adding knowledge to know- 
ledge, and virtue to virtue, carries something in it 
very agreeable to that ambition which is natural to 
the mind of man. It must be a prospect pleasing to 
God himself, to see his creation forever beautifying 
and drawing nearer to him, by greater degrees of re- 
semblance.' ' 

We know, according to the scriptures, that Christ 
and the holy angels, will rejoice in the happification 
of souls; yet believers in the doctrine of an angry God, 
and a hell of everlasting fire and brimstone, will have 
it, that the Almighty maker will take pleasure, in the 
endless misery of those beautiful and glorious souls, 
which he brought into existence, and endued with such 
noble faculties, capable of sustaining an eternal weight 
of glory, and of shining as the stars forever and ever. 



238 IMPROVEMENT IN 

Oh ! my dear reader, you must not entertain so un- 
worthy, so unjust an opinion of your heavenly father, 
who is infinitely good. The opinion is unworthy, he- 
cause it argues, that God is more void of tender and 
parental feelings than mankind, or even the brute 
creation. What parents would not he distressed at the 
knowledge and sight of the great suffering of their 
offspring, and hold out their hand to help, even to 
the most disobedient — or what parents would make 
their children eternally miserable ? none, for any 
cause ; and dare we to say that God will make any of 
his offspring eternally miserable? — we dare not; the 
scriptures, the only guide on this subject, give no 
such information. Again, such an opinion represents 
the divine Parent of all intelligent beings, much 
worse than any of the brute creation. These love 
their offspring — take great pains to provide for their 
wants — will themselves suffer for them — will labour — 
will fight, risk, and even lose their lives in the defence, 
and for the welfare of their young. No, in God, the 
scripture inform us, " we live, move, and have our 
being, 11 and yet dare we say that he hates us ? If he 
does, or ever will, he is not so good as man or beast. — 
But some may say that he loves us all now, but will 
hate all those hereafter, who shall die impenitent. 
This, however, cannot be the case, as God " is of one 
mind, and changeth not. 11 It will, therefore, follow, 
that if he ever shall hate any soul, he must have 
hated it before he created it, and that if he ever did 
love any soul he ever will love it, for in him there is 
no variableness nor shadow of turning. 

The opinion is unjust, because it is false, and be- 
cause it exhibits the divine " father of mercies 11 in an 
unfavourable character, to the student of divinity, as 
one who is not worthy to be loved, for nothing but a 
knowledge, or a belief that God loves man without 
partiality, can cause man to love him. 



ANOTHER STATE. 239 

"That Cherub,'' says Mr. Addison, " which now 
appears as a God to a human soul, knows very well, 
that the period will come about, in eternity, when the 
human soul will be as perfect, as he himself now is. 
Nay, when it shall look down upon that degree of per- 
fection, as much as it now falls short of it. It is true, 
the higher nature still advances, and by that means, 
still preserves his distance and superiority in the scale 
of being, but he knows, that, how bright soever the 
station is, on which he stands possessed at present, the 
inferior nature, will at length mount up to it, and shine 
forth in the same degree of glory.'' 

" With what astonishment and veneration may we 
look upon our souls, where there are such hidden 
stores of knowledge and virtue — such inexhaustible 
sources of perfection! We know not yet what we 
shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man, 
to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve 
for him. The soul, compared with its Maker, is like 
one of those mathematical lines, which may draw 
nearer to another through eternity without a possibility 
of touching ; and can there be a thought so trans- 
porting, as to consider ourselves in these perpetual 
approaches to HIM, who is the standard, not only of 
perfection, but of happiness ?'' 

All the good and wise among men, at least, hope, 
that the infinitely good Creator, will in due time, re- 
store universal holiness and happiness among his off- 
spring, throughout his empire ; none but the ignorant, 
selfish, wicked, and hard hearted, object to the rea- 
sonableness of the hope, or wish the eternal misery of 
souls in their next state of existence. 

After the death of the body, the spirit, being clear 
of its clay, like a bird clear of its cage of confinement, 
soars abroad in the unlimited creation of the Almighty, 
where it will find new objects to admire, of wonder, 
of love, and of everlasting contemplation — Where and 



240 IMPROVEMENT IN 

when, all its immortal faculties may unfold and im- 
prove eternally. 

Under all these circumstances, of the case of the 
disimbodied spirit, does it not seem very reasonable 
to believe, that it will have ten thousand times better 
opportunity of purification than in this world, and as- 
sociated with this body of " sin and death V 

After reading this much, some may wish to inquire 
or know our opinion, on the interesting subject, where 
those souls go, or reside, who are not fit for heaven, 
when they leave the body, as the book endeavours to 
prove that there is no hell, to hold them. In answer 
to this query, we will just remark, that no one ought 
to entertain a thought, that heaven is a local place, it 
is only happiness ; or that hell is any thing else than 
misery — the grave ; and the unavoidable state of 
spirits as we have already proved, from the proper 
signification of the term Sheol, in the Hebrew language, 
and which occurs in the Old Testament as the word 
rendered hell — and Hades. Gehenna is in the origi- 
nal Greek New Testament, translated hell also. All 
sensible readers understand, that the soul of man is 
thought. Thought requires no specific space to oc- 
cupy — Time and space of any degree is perfectly 
equal to spiritual beings. If this then be the case, 
can the divine Creator be at a loss for room' to hold 
those souls, who are not, while in the body, made 
fit to stand in the full vision of the divine pre- 
sence ? We think not ; his dominions are unlim- 
ited. 

But it may be, that some will say, that Mr. Addi- 
son had in view, when he reasoned of the glorious 
destiny of the soul, those only who are prepared in 
this life, for that eternal weight of glory ; but he says, 
" here man has not time to subdue his passions, esta- 
blish his soul in virtue, and come up to the perfection 
of his nature, before he is hurried off the stage. '' He 



ANOTHER STATE. 241 

makes no distinction between, what some call, good 
souls and bad souls. The goodness or badness of 
souls, are compared by man only. In the sight of the 
divine being, who " sees the thoughts,'' all are alike 
bad — all need purification, none can be introduced to 
ultimate glory, until they are converted. It is true, 
that those souls who are virtuous in this life, in whom 
the good change has begun, are equally capable of 
being " changed from glory to glory, 1 ' beyond the 
grave, but this admittance does not invalidate the force 
of the reason of the supposition, that those who are 
not virtuous in life can be made so in their future state 
of existence, or disembodied state, and also, arise to 
the same degree of holiness and glory. The admis- 
sion of the fact, as the scriptures state, that souls are 
capable of sustaining an " eternal weight of glory,' 1 
argues in favour of the supposition we wish to sup- 
port — for all souls are of the same nature — have been 
created of the same essence, and are capable of the 
same improvement. 

The divine creator knows this, he knows how pre- 
cious the soul is. Although it now lies buried in 
rubbish, and in ruin, he will not cast it off forever. 
The owner of a valuable diamond that might be cov- 
ered with filth would not throw it away because of 
its defilement, but would wash and cleanse it, for his 
use and ornament. So will the divine father, wash, 
cleanse, and beautify his own "jewels, 11 from all 
their filth and pollution, for his own use and orna- 
ment. 

It may be asked by some, how God will sanctify 
the soul after it has left the body ? To this query we 
answer, that we have never been able to learn, by the 
scripture, or any how else, how the body of the soul, 
or the circumstance of the association, anywise as- 
sisted God, or afforded him any facilities, in sanctify- 
ing the soul : but we have learned by scripture, and 

21 



242 IMPROVEMENT LN 

experience, that this bodily connexion is the main 
obstacle in the way of sanctification, and the primary 
cause of crimes and misery, in this life. If then, this 
be true, and who can deny it to be ? — it would seem 
to follow as a natural consequence, that, if the soul 
was out of the body, it could neither sin nor suffer. 

But to come to the merit of the question, how can 
God sanctify the soul when it has left the body ? we 
remark, that whatever he docs towards the purifica- 
tion of souls in this life, we know he does it by oper- 
ating on the mind or soul itself, and not on the body. 
He communicates light, information or knowledge to 
the soul of a proper sort. Mental information is light ; 
the Apostle says, u whatsoever makes manifest is 
light," and our Saviour who is " the light of the 
world," said, " this is life eternal to know thee, the 
only true God." The Apostle Paul was sent to the 
gentilqs, to " open their eyes" by preaching to them 
the gospel of the grace [love] of God," by which they 
were to " receive forgiveness of sins," [a knowledge 
of the fact,] and an inheritance among them which 
are sanctihed by faith that is in me," [Christ.] 

From the above testimony, and remarks, it seems, 
that a correct knowledge of the real character of the 
adorable God, is life, or produces life in the soul, dead 
a in sin and trespasses,' 1 and which is the death that 
God told Adam he should die, in the day he ate of the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and which did 
come to pass. Since the fact of eating the forbidden 
fruit, and of our first parents being excluded the gar- 
den of Eden, the divine presence, the whole human 
family have been without God in the world, without 
the knowledge of his real character, and intentions 
towards man — They have considered him a being of 
power, but of revengeful feeling towards them, for the 
original offence of their first parents, in Eden, and 
their offence also, against the moral law. which is of 



ANOTHER STATE. 243 

universal obligation, and therefore they have feared, 
and hated God also, and are dead. 

All souls then, in any state of their existence, who 
are brought, by any means, to the important know- 
ledge of the real character of the God of infinite love, 
whose tender mercies are everlasting, are raised from 
the dead, are converted, are created anew in Christ 
Jesus, are born again, are sanctified by faith, and 
know that their sins are forgiven, even all manner of 
sins and blasphemies. Now, we have the Saviour's 
words for it, that the women loved much because 
their sins which were many, were forgiven by him ; 
but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little. 
From these remarks of the Saviour, it would seem to 
follow, as a natural consequence, that the greater sin- 
ner the soul had been previous to its knowledge of 
forgiveness, the greater love it would have to God the 
divine pardoner. And as love is the very essence of 
holiness, and holiness of happiness, or heaven— the 
qualification for eternal glory, is to be obtained sim- 
ply by the knowledge of pardon. And now, we ask, 
why cannot this knowledge be obtained, by the spirit, 
beyond the grave ? It can. And the soul can, and 
will be forgiven, beyond the grave — or rather, the 
soul will be put in possession of the knowledge of the 
fact — which did exist, even before the soul sinned, for 
God is of one mind and changeth not. 

Man may be offended with his fellow man, and the 
next day forgive, him, and the next, again be offended 
— but God says, " fear not me, for I am the Lord, I 
change not."" From the circumstance of the immuta- 
bility of the Almighty, it is evident, that if he ever for- 
gives and loves any of his frail offending creatures, he 
did so before they were brought into existence ; and 
of course, will continue to do so, through the countless 
periods of eternity. But on the other hand, if he shall 
ever hate and punish any of his creatures, in any pe~ 



244 IMPROVEMENT IN 

riod of their existence, from any cause, he did hate 
them from eternity, and nothing they can do or suffer, 
will alter his feelings, and intention towards them ; 
their miserable fate is more surely and permanently 
fixed than the sun in his orbit. But, although we 
know that God is of one mind and changeth not, we 
need not be alarmed, for u God is love,'' and all his 
purposes, like himself, are purposes of love, and too, 
like him, they cannot fail or change, but will be ac- 
complished in the restitution of all things. 

With regard to the necessary obedience of the soul 
after death, to the divine will, we remark, that what 
produces it in the soul, in this life, is most likely to 
produce it in the future state ; namely, a knowledge 
l " of the kindness and love of God our Saviour,' ' 
which produced it in the soul of the apostle Paul, and 
the ancient christians — See Titus, 3:4; and we again 
ask, why cannot the "kindness and love of God our 
Saviour towards men appear" in the future, as well 
as in this state ? It can and will, and even better. 
1 fere we see through a glass darkly ; but in the fu- 
ture and disimbodied state, the soul will see without 
dimness, and know without ignorance and uncertainty. 

We are informed in scripture, that when the body 
bhall return to the earth, that the spirit or soul, shall 
return to '* God who gave it 11 — of course shall see 
him as he is, and be " transformed into his likeness." 
What plainer information do we need to assure us of 
the time, method, and means of the purification, and 
glorification of the soul ? 



ANOTHER STATE. 245 

SECTION IV 

If souls cannot be altered for the better beyond the grave, In 
fants cannot be saved — What it is to be born of God — Idiots 
not fit for heaven — Those who never heard of Christ and God, 
not fit for heaven. 

If the foregoing remarks and arguments on the sub- 
ject, are not sufficiently satisfactory to the reader, to 
convince his judgment of their propriety, and of the 
truth of the position which we have taken, we will ex- 
hibit some others, which we think, will be, and from 
whose evidence, as matters of fact, and of reason, can 
be no appeal. 

First — Then, taking it for granted that the soul is 
produced or brought into existence by ordinary gen- 
eration, at the time of the formation of the body, we 
argue that the soul of an infant has no knowledge of 
God, whom to know is eternal * life, nor of Jesus 
Christ. Now, as we are informed by scripture, that 
the necessary qualification for heaven, or the enjoy- 
ment of the divine presence, is to love the Lord our 
God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the 
strength, and with all the mind, it would be seen that 
infants cannot be saved, under the circumstances of 
the case, who die in an infantile state, if there is no 
alteration of the soul for the better in the future state ; 
as it is impossible to love an object without having 
some knowledge of it, and we know that an infant 
soul has none of God, of course no love to him, but as 
we are assured from the testimony of scripture, that 
the souls of infants will be saved, we must believe 
that they will undergo alteration, for the better, af:er 
the death of the body. 

We are informed, that no soul can be saved if it 

has not been born again, or born of God ; and we are 

told in I John, 5 : 1 — That " Whosoever believeth 

that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God."" Now we 

21* 



246 IMPROVEMENT IN 

have known that infants cannot believe this, nor any 
others who have never even heard of his name ; and 
it follows from the analogy of reasoning, that those 
who do not, from some cause believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, cannot be blessed, as they are not born of 
God. 

Second — We know that many persons are brought 
into existence, who remain very ignorant during life ; 
many idiots ; — of course, such persons cannot know 
God nor Christ, whom to know is eternal life, even 
should they be born and raised in a land of scripture 
information ; and yet it seems that unless they have 
an opportunity of obtaining this knowledge in the fu- 
ture state, their existence is a curse, as they must miss 
of life, and experience annihilation or misery. Should 
such persons exert all their mental powers to obtain 
a knowledge of God, they could not by any means ob- 
tain such a knowledge of their Maker, as to induce 
them to love him with all their heart, of course could 
obtain no more purification for heaven than brute 
beasts. Under these circumstances of hard fate, in 
this life, can any one believe, that the divine creator 
would bring idiots into existence, with an inferior 
capacity, capable of suffering an immortal existence 
of misery in the future state, for no other good rea- 
son, but because they had not understanding enough 
to know and love him with all their souls — and for 
the specific purpose of suffering the miseries of Idiocy 
during their natural life, and the endless miseries of 
hell hereafter ? The Almighty knew perfectly well, 
that this must be their fate, before he made them, of 
course made them for that very purpose ; for we must 
believe, that the divine bein<.>; could but know what 
would come to pass, as a fact implies he had pre- 
viously decreed the occurrence of the fact. The 
same argument may be urged relative to the short ex- 
istence and death of infants, who are as idiots. 



ANOTHER STATE. 247 

Again — If the millions of souls, who are now, and 
will be hereafter associated with mortal bodies, and 
leave them without an opportunity of attaining to the 
proper knowledge of God, and necessary qualification 
for heaven, on earth ; nor have the means of qualifi- 
cation in the future state, how can we justify the ways 
of God to man, in bringing into an existence of human 
misery, so many beings for eternal wo ? But we can 
justify the ways of God, by believing the truth ; that 
the souls of infants, of idiots, and of all the millions of 
human beings, who from any cause, may be prevent- 
ed during this life from attaining a due degree of quali- 
fication for the enjoyment of heaven, or the glory of 
the divine presence, shall attain to it beyond the grave, 
in their next state of existence, " when this corrupti- 
ble shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal 
shall put on immortality. 1 ' If souls were perfectly fit 
for heaven or immortal enjoyments, while in the body, 
they would have heaven on earth, and not be under 
the necessity of putting off the body of mortality, in 
order to be immortalized, and made happy. 

We know that happiness does not consist in the na- 
ture of the place that the soul may be in, but in its 
own disposition or feeling — the qualification it may 
possess. 

Perhaps, a query may arise in the mind of the read- 
er, at this stage of the argument, whether those souls 
which may leave the body without being made holy in 
it, will suffer during the time they may be unholy, and 
unfit for heaven, until they may be made holy ? Re- 
lative to this question, we would remark, that as holi- 
ness and happiness are inseparably connected, one 
naturally producing the other, no intelligent being can 
be happy unless holy, in any state or mode of exist- 
ence whatever. And further, we are authorised by 
scripture to believe, that the adorable God never de- 
signed " willingly to afflict nor grieve the children of 



243 IMPROVEMENT IN 

men," for the sake of grieving or punishing them, but 
merely allows them to be afflicted, or punished, by 
the operation and influence of their conduct and dis- 
position, or those of others ; yet always, with a view 
to their benefit. Jeremiah well remarks, " where- 
fore should a living man complain for the punishment 
of his sins, it is of the Lord's mercy that we are not 
consumed, because his compassions fail not ; they are 
new every evening and morning ; great is his faith- 
fulness ;" and we may add, his goodness in the case, 
that allows the u impieties of man to ieprove him, 
and his sins to punish him" — that he "scourges every 
son whom he receiveth," that they may be made per- 
fect through sufferings, and made partakers of the di- 
vine nature. All this discipline is absolutely neces- 
sary for the refinement of the soul, else it would not 
be administered. We must believe that God never 
did nor ever will, cause or allow one of his creatures 
to suffer in any state or time of their existence, one 
moment longer, nor one degree more, than is abso- 
lutely necessary to fit them for that eternal weight of 
glory for which he designs (hem. If he did, their suf- 
ferings would stand as an eternal allegation against 
his goodness and justice. 

It is plain, that as long as the soul is unholy, and 
has to associate with other unholy beings in any state, 
it must be more or less unhappy : but how long any 
soul will continue unholy in its disimbodied state, 
with all the faculties of that state to attain holiness, is 
more than we can declare ; stil! we may be allowed 
to suppose, that the time of its purification, depends 
upon its previous qualification, and we will venture 
an opinion, that no means which can be offered to the 
soul in this life, will further its qualification for future 
and eternal enjoyment, so much as those intellectal 
improvements of the mind. " With all thy getting," 
said the wisest of men, " get wisdom, for it is the prin- 



ANOTHER STATE. 249 

cipal thing." But as all degrees of time are equal to 
spiritual beings, we cannot calculate to any certainty 
or advantage. 

Although we do believe, that unholy souls must re- 
main unhappy, until they are made holy, by some 
means ; we do not believe in the existence of what 
some call a purgatory , or as others do in the doctrine 
of hell-redemption : no, for we do not believe in the 
existence of any local hell, calculated to inflict pun- 
ishment, or in a purgatory, other than those means that 
the Creator has ordained in this and the future state 
of being, for the purgation of all impure intelligences 
in his universe. Happiness nor misery have no place 
of existence, but with the mind — and whenever, or 
wherever that is holy, it will be happy. 

But some may inquire, what is holiness, and how 
are souls made holy ? Holiness of soul consists in 
"loving the Lord our God with all the mind,' 1 and 
our neighbour as ourselves, and this love to God pro- 
duces correspondent actions ; an entire obedience, 
and submission to his will, and that to our neighbour, 
such as to do him all the good we can, and no harm, 
under any circumstances. Perhaps no person ever 
lived on earth who attained to this perfection of love ; 
and the reason is plain, because like the Apostle Paul 
and all other mortals, they were closely connected 
with a carnal mind, and a body of sin and death. 
Still advances are made towards this perfection, in this 
life. 

It may now be asked, what are the means by which 
these advances to holiness are made ? We answer in 
the words of scripture, " Whosoever believeth that 
Jesus is the Christ, is born of God,' 1 — " And we know 
that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not." And that 
" this is eternal life, that they should know thee, the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 
sent." That the attainment of such knowledge, is 






250 IMPROVEMENT IN 

the means of advancement, we believe ; of course it 
is plain, that the rapidity or slowness of those ad- 
vancements, depend much upon the correctness, or 
incorrectness of our views of the true character of 
God and Christ. Now if the reader wish to know 
God, he may read " God is love, 1 ' and of Jesus Christ, 
14 the father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the 
world." " This is the record, that God hath given to 
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." " He 
that hath the son [bclieveth on him] hath life," that is, 
whoso believcth that he is the Saviour of the world, 
hath life. But these declarations and scripture proofs, 
do not intimate, that if any souls should not attain to 
the perfection of the belief that giveth life, in this life, 
they cannot attain to the faith of truth in their next, 
or fuftire state. 

And now we ask, if the soul, in a disimbodied state, 
will not have a much better opportunity of obtaining 
the perfection of the knowledge of God and Jesus 
Christ, than it has in this body of organized clay, 
whose foundation is in the dust! We must believe it 
will. 

After the soul shall have left the body, it shall, as 
the scriptures declare, " return to God who gave i(;" 
of course, as the scriptures also state, see him as he 
is, face to face. Here the soul sees in part, knows in 
part, but in the disimbodied state, shall know as it is 
known. It can know God to be a " God of love," as 
it will find, that instead of putting it under eternal 
punishment, for the imperfections of a short life, he 
will freely forgive, and take it to his bosom, as his own 
dear child, who was lost but now is found, who was 
dead, but is alive, and brought through the avenues of 
misery to its father's house, who " will wipe away all 
tears from its eyes." 

In this disimbodied state, the soul can easier attain 
to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In this state, it 



ANOTHER STATE. 251 

will see him face to face, without a veil between, and 
shall know, and of course, believe that he u is the 
Christ," and the " Saviour of the world ;" and the 
sight, or knowledge of God and Christ, will exalt, 
sanctify, transform, and glorify the most low, degraded 
and unhappy soul, that ever left the body. 

Again, we know that there are many souls, who are 
associated with bodies for many years ; and yet, from 
the-place of their nativity, or other causes, over which 
they could have no control, have been prevented 
from obtaining any correct knowledge of God, or any 
that was beneficial. Now if the Almighty does not 
afford them an opportunity of believing the truth, so 
as to obtain eternal life,' in this state of existence, how 
can we believe he is an impartial God ? 

Almost all persons believe, that all those souls who 
are saved, are put in possession of eternal life in their 
next state of existence, are operated on, or influenced, 
by the divine father ; and we would here remark, 
that if any miss of heaven, it must be for the lack of 
the same kind and degree of influence which God 
afforded to others, upon whom salutary effect was 
produced. 

Those who argue' that all have equally the assist- 
ance which is needed to purify the soul in this state 
of existence, are either very ignorant of facts, or wil- 
lingly lie to their own souls. Every aid, to have an 
equal effect, must be proportioned to the evil which 
is to be overcome. Were this always the case, the 
effect would be uniformly produced. 

Again — the intellect of different persons varies as 
much as their distinctive bodily features ; and truth, 
expressed in the same terms to people of different 
powers of perception, will net, therefore, be equally 
efficacious. The light of divine truth sheds meridian 
day on one, while to another it affords but a glimmer- 
ing twilight. While a word fitly spoken affords to 



252 IMPROVEMENT IN 

one a demonstration, to another it must be repeated 
line upon line, and reiterated by precept upon pre- 
cept, to have any visible effect. All have need of the 
same truth, in equal degrees, to be equally happy, and 
even should we allow degrees of happiness in a future 
life, yet certain it is, that without some degree of di- 
vine light, no one can be happy, even to the fulness 
of his capacity, however small that may be. True 
indeed, men in this world do not appear to be equally 
happy, but we believe they are really nearer in this 
respect, than is generally imagined ; and the poet has 
not assumed any considerable license, when he says, 
"not one will change his neighbour with himself. 1 ' 
Indeed, the celebrated Pope brings the subject home 
to our business and bosoms, in the following beautiful 
lines : — 

u The learned is happy nature to explore, 
The fool is happy that he knows no more ; 
The rich is happy in the plenty given, 
The poor contents him with the care of heaven. 
See some strange comfort every state attend, 
And pride, bestowed on all, a common friend." 

But would the infinite difference which some sup- 
pose will exist in a future state, be honourable to God 
as a moral governor ? Will the most obstinate fanat- 
ic allow that the rule which gives to every one a 
share of happiness in this life, will be reversed in the 
next ? All the orthodox contend that impartiality 
will be more specially exhibited in the future, than in 
the present life ; but if, instead of different degrees of 
happiness, as we see in this state of being, a portion 
is to enjoy supernal blessedness at the expense of end- 
less sin and suffering to the other portion, shall we 
call this impartiality ? 



ANOTHER STATE. 253 

Every person of moral reflection, must remark the 
great difference between the conditions of the human 
family in this life. Some have much better opportu- 
nities afforded them, not only to be happy in this life, 
but to obtain qualification for endless felicity. To 
still all our disquietudes on the subject of a partial 
providence, an unequal distribution of the favours of 
the Almighty, we must remember, and believe the re- 
mark of the Redeemer to his disciples. c; Master" 
said they, " did this man sin, or his parents, that he 
was born blind." Neither this man sinned nor his 
parents that he was born blind, but he was born blind 
that the works of God might be made manifest. Jesus 
Christ then delivered him from his blindness, from 
his infirmity, did on him the works of God. So he 
will deliver all mankind, from blindness — from moral 
death — from temporal miseries and infirmities of eve- 
ry name. The blind man was born blind, not for his 
own sin which he might have committed if he existed 
before he came into the body, if he did thus exist, no ; 
nor for the sin of his parents, but for the specific pur- 
pose that Jesus Christ might see him, and in the sight 
of the multitude, open his eyes. 

And we must believe, that whatever the condition 
of any of the human family is, in this life, it is so, by 
divine appointment, that the " works of God may be 
manifest." Whether any one is rich or poor, a slave 
or free, ignorant or wise, male or female, black or 
white, blind or not, enjoying much holiness, or great 
misery, they are so, that the ways of God might be 
made manifest, and we believe his ways are ways of 
love, for God is love. His way through the instru- 
mentality of the Redeemer, to the blind man was love, 
and he will deliver the whole creation from their 
" bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of 
the children of God." If the man had not been blind, 

22 



254 IMPROVEMENT IN 

he could not have been recovered, of course he cosld 
not have loved Christ for opening his eyes. So if the 
human family had not been associated with a carnal 
body, and thereby induced to sin, and compelled to 
suffer, they could not be delivered, nor could they 
love God for their deliverance ; of course they could 
not be happy, for love is happiness, and heaven — " He 
that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and he in him, 1, 
but God will deliver the human family from blindness 
and wo — both physical and mental. 



SECTION V 

Statement of another opinion relative to the origin of the soul — 
God could have prevented moral evil and human misery — 
The necessity and benefit of evil and misery. 

Some theologians hold, and inculcate the opinion, 
that souls existed before they associated with flesh, 
and in which pre-existent state they sinned, by some 
means, and are now put into mortal bodies, and made 
subject to vanity at such times and places, and under 
such circumstances, as the Almighty may select with 
with a view to their purification, and perfection, like 
the captain of their salvation, through suffering. 

Assuming the truth of this hypothesis, we may, with 
much propriety, argue in favour of a belief of the final 
restoration of the degraded soul — which is now made 
subject to vanity, but we hope and say with the Apos- 
tle, it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

But to reason on the subject. If souls did exist 
before they came into the bodies, and do come into 
them because they have sinned, the intention of God 
in sending them here, must be for their benefit, and if 
any are not benefited by the connexion, he must have 



ANOTHER STATE. 255 

known the fact before he ever intended the connexion, 
and if he did know it as a fact, he would not have sent 
them here, unless he intended their misery instead of 
their happiness. 

But if God really intended the present and endless 
misery of some soul which he has associated with mor- 
tal bodies here, he could as well have let them be so in 
their disimbodied state, or if thei» deviation from mor- 
al rectitude, did not make them as miserable as he 
wished, he might have devised some way for that pur- 
pose as well as to first send them to exist in bodies, on 
a great and beautiful world, which he seems to have 
made for their accommodation, and to make them suf- 
fer some, so as to just taste misery and then to endure 
it for ever. But that he wishes their purification and 
endless happiness, is evident, if the scripture be true. 
If then God wishes the happiness of souls, we must 
believe that their connexion with mortal bodies — 
their subjection to vanity, and their present suffer- 
ings, are parts of the means he uses for that pur- 
pose. Upon no other system of faith, can we justify 
the ways of God to man, in permitting the existence of 
evil and suffering among them. 

Arguments of reason, and expositions of Scripture 
have been used in all ages, by the good and wise, to 
reconcile the mind of man, under the circumstances of 
the existence of moral evil and human misery, under 
the reign of a wise, powerful, and good being, and have 
proceeded upon the ground of the short continuance, 
necessary and salutary effect of human suffering, to 
produce a relish of, and qualification for an eternal 
weight of glory, in the next state of existence for eve- 
ry sufferer — and they all ought, like the Apostle, to 
reckon the sufferings of this present life, or time, 
are not to be compared with the glory which shall 
be revealed in them. And also on the finite nature 
of sin. or moral evil, and its tendency to produce good. 



25tf IMPROVEMENT IN 

Under such views we may be reconciled to live and 
to suffer, and not to " fret at evil doers, or against the 
Lord," as our sufferings are to work out for us, an 
eternal weight of glory, and that evil doers are permit- 
ted by the Almighty to live, under his care and ever- 
lasting love. And we may believe also, that he who 
has wounded will heal, who has degraded will exalt, 
who has begun a good work of redemption will carry 
it on to perfection, either in this or the coming state. 
That as the Scriptures declare, as we have been par- 
takers of the earthly nature, so shall we be of the 
heavenly. 

Once more. Although we do not believe in a resur- 
rection of the body, because it would be contrary to 
scripture and reason, nor in what is called a general 
judgment, yet to (hose who do we will apply this fur- 
ther argument in favour of the doctrine by asking them 
what they think may be the exercise of the soul after 
death, which may leave the body unholy, during the 
time, which will intervene between the death of the 
body of some, and the day of the general judgment 1 
We would ask, will they not have ample time and 
means afforded during this period for sanctification ? 
Will not their opportunity be better, than when asso- 
ciated with a fleshly body, and carnal mind of earthly 
and sensual propensities ? Surrounded with bad ex- 
amples — natural temptations, and, according to com- 
mon belief, a powerful, malicious, personal Devil, who 
with all the subtility of an angel of light is continual- 
ly r going about, seeking whom he may devour ? 

All who believe in a resurrection of the body and 
general judgment, agree in thinking that souls will not, 
either be rewarded with heaven for their services, nor 
punished in hell, before the judgment day — of course, 
they ought to believe, and reason is on the side of the 
argument, that all souls will be redeemed by the blood 
of the Lamb, and that the song of universal praise will 



ANOTHER STATE. 257 

be sung by " every creature which is in heaven, and 
on the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that 
are in them f saying, blessing, and honour, and glory, 
and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." But wc 
would ask, with what propriety could every creature 
give this glory to the Lamb, unless they had been ac- 
tually redeemed ? 

We anticipate an objection, that may be made by 
some, against the position which we wish to establish, 
predicated on the last noted hypothesis, the pre-exist- 
ence of souls to Infants and Idiots, and all those who 
from natural circumstances, have been during life pre- 
cluded a moral qualification for heaven. The merit 
of the objection is, that, if souls were capable of sin- 
ning in their pre-existent and disimbodied state, why 
not suppose they are capable of repenting and reforma- 
tion, as souls abstract from bodily considerations, and 
if they do not, they are proper subjects of punishment, 
according to the rules of moral justice. 

To this reasoning, we oppose the argument, that, if 
the human soul did exist, before it was connected with 
a body, and in that state sinned, we have no grounds 
from scripture, or reason, to believe that it is now 
capable of repenting, while associated with the body of 
an Infant or an Idiot, or even with that of wisdom and 
age, unless it is properly informed of the nature and 
character of God, and the requisitions of the law ;• 
44 how can they call on him of whom they have not 
heard V If souls have moral information before they 
came into mortal bodies, it is evident that they lose it, 
by some means, at their first appearance in flesh, for 
not only our common sense and reason teach us that 
this is the case ; but the scriptures uniformly, repre- 
sent all minkind, in a state of uninstructed nature, 
4 'without God in the world,"' or without the knowl- 
edge of God. 

22* 



258 IMPROVEMENT IN 

And now, dear reader, how can you, why will you 
disbelieve, or dispute such reasonable, such consolato- 
ry doctrine ? No scripture denies it, no reason dis- 
proves it. It is a doctrine full of sweet and immortal 
hopes, a doctrine calculated, to justify the ways of 
God, to the most reasonable, and the best feelings of 
the human heart — to cause all souls to love and adore 
the great and good Father of the human family. 
It is a doctrine that above all others, which have ever 
been offered for the credence of man, is best calculated 
to promote human love, human hope, and human peace 
and happiness. 

Of love — If all mankind fully believed that all their 
fellow creatures were the children of God, and equal- 
ly interested in this love, and would certainly meet 
and associate together, in great glory, in their next 
state of existence, would they, could they hate and in- 
jure each other, in this life ? No, they would not, they 
could not ; but they would love each the other as 
Christ loved them. They would realize the fact "he 
that loveth God loveth his brother also." 

Of hope — If people really believed in the eternal 
salvation of all souls, with what feelings of resignation 
could they part with those whom they loved, their 
separation by death would be viewed, as only of short 
duration, when they should meet with, and see them 
again, adorned with all the charms of divine beauty, 
and tilled with immortal joys, in the regions of endless 
pleasure, where is no more parting. 

Of peace — If all mankind were believers of the con- 
solatory doctrine of the universal holiness and happi- 
ness of the human family, would they not live in love 
and peace with each other, and with God ? yes, they 
would be delivered from the fear of future wo ; of the 
endless misery of themselves — of their children, and 
all others, whom they loved. Though a dear friend, 
a relative, a son, or a daughter, might die, void of the 



ANOTHER STATE. 259 

knowledge and love of God, in the soul — might be a 
murderer, or a prostitute — defiled with crimes, and 
covered with scandal — was hurried off the stage of life 
unwarned ; no time afforded for reformation, no time 
to make reparation for injuries done — no manifesta- 
tion of a godly sorrow for sin ; no signs or fruits of 
repentance ; but " a fearful looking for of judgment 
and fiery indignation 1 ' in the future state ; yet those 
who had the faith of truth could enjoy peace, relying 
on the power, goodness, and promise of God — to 
cleanse — to purify — to sublimate, the defiled and de- 
graded soul, in his own way and time, and receive it, 
as his own wandering, prodigal, suffering child, when 
he will dress and beautify in all the charms of celestial 
lustre, and present it to all the family above, to be ad- 
mired among all those who come out of great tribula- 
tion, and have " their robes washed white in the blood 
of the Lamb." 

And now, my dear reader, how can you disbelieve 
or oppose so consolatory a doctrine, so worthy of a 
God of all power, love, and justice ? Is not its truth 
interesting to every fine feeling of your heart ? Is it 
not congenial with the purest love of your soul, which 
yet retains some relic of the divine nature, love, rela- 
tive to your neighbour, to your relations, to your dear 
children, and all mankind ? Surely it is. You would 
make all mankind eternally happy, if you had the 
power so to do ; but you cannot. God is pure love ; 
he has all power, he can make all souls eternally hap- 
py, and can you doubt his love or his power ? it is his 
will to have all men to be saved, and is not his power 
sufficient to accomplish the resolves of his will ? 
Surely it is — then all men will be saved. 

There is a position taken by the opposers of the 
doctrine of God's universal and impartial love, of the 
following nature — That many great sinners live long 
in sin and pleasure, and if, when they leave the world, 



260 IMPROVEMENT IN 

they go straight to heaven, they are better dealt with, 
than many others who sin less, and suffer more, in 
life. The reader must here remark, that no one can 
correctly estimate the quantum of the happiness or 
pain of another, and that calculation on this subject 
is uncertain ; but should we give the position the 
place of presumption, there is nothing gained against 
the doctrine of love for which we contend. Pure 
love wants nothing for its favors — When, as we read, 
the lord of the vineyard gave as much to those of his 
labourers who had worked but one hour, as to those 
who bore the heat and burden of the day, they mur- 
mured ; but his reply to them was — is thine eye cvii, 
because mine is good : have not I a right to do as I 
will with mine own ? Then, dear reader, if you had 
the love of God in your soul, you would not object, 
that the vilest sinner in existence — even your mur- 
derer, with his hands stained in your blood, should af- 
ter death be forgiven, sanctified, and received into the 
joy of your father's house, to be the associate of your 
soul, companion of your joy, through all eternity. — 
Had you the spirit of Christ, this would be your feel- 
ings — he prayed for his murderers, " father forgive 
them, they know not what they do." 

Thus, it is easily seen, that divine love requires 
neither suffering nor service, to entitle the needy sin- 
ner to its favors — if it did, man would not be saved by 
grace — but even say that it requires suffering, and 
reception to prepare it for the enjoyment of its favour. 
We do not believe that souls are capable of sinning 
beyond the ^ravc, so as to be forgiven ; but we persist 
in the belief, that they arc proper subjects of opera- 
tion, and can be prepared by operation, into a qualifi- 
cation, and capacity of sustaining an eternal weight 
of glory, and we are inclined to the belief that this is 
done after the soul leaves the body. 



ANOTHER STATE. 261 

To support this position, let it be supposed, that a 
very wicked man should be on his death bed, and to 
believe that he was soon to die and enter into the pre- 
sence of a holy, and sin avenging God — would he not 
die in much fear of God, and eternal misery ? he 
would — But let us follow, in idea, the transit of the 
disiinbodied sod. As soon as it put off mortality, its 
perceptions are altered and enlarged — as the scriptures 
declare, it now sees as it is seen, and knows as it is 
known. It discovers something of the spiritual and 
holy nature of God, the purity of his law, and pro- 
priety of having attended to its precepts — and it fears 
and trembles. Like the poor, sinful, self-condemned 
woman, of whom we read — who bowed to the Sa- 
viour's feet^ washed them with her tears, and wiped 
them with her hair, and kissed them. So will the 
soul of the poor sinner do, when it sees God and Jesus 
as they are — it wili voluntarily bow in all the depth 
of self abasement, at the feet of God — it will wash them 
with its tears of fear, of sorrow, and of love — It will 
say, u father I have sinned against heaven and in thy 
sight, and am not worthy to be called thy son. 1 ' But 
should the father, as he most assuredly will, raise up 
and embrace his long lost son, with the warmest ex- 
pressions of his love, and inform him that his " sins 
which were many were forgiven," would not such a 
soul, on hearing, or understanding this declaration of 
Him who never changes, be immediately delivered 
from fear ? would it not be filled with gratitude, with 
admiration, and delight, with love unfeigned to the 
divine father — with " joy unspeakable and full of glo- 
ry V Would not such information, and such usage 
cause the soul to love God with all its might, and 
mind, and strength — to " love him because he first 
loved it ?" This would be preparation for heaven. 
This would be an assimilation into the image or like- 
ness of God, who is love. No other means can be 






262 IMPROVEMENT IN 

used, to make degraded intelligences love God, and of 
course fit for heaven, but by forgiving them all man- 
ner of sin. God Almighty, has no other way of puri- 
fying and exalting defiled souls, but by pardoning 
them freely — but by the influence of love. And the 
Saviour declares, that he that hath much forgiven, 
loveth much, but where little is forgiven there is little 
love. So to forgive much, is to cause much love, to 
fill the soul with love — love is heaven. 

Whatever of affliction mortals meet with in this 
life, are the chastisements of their Maker for their 
crimes, and the result of divine love, to reclaim them 
— that they may be made partakers of his holin 
but an endless punishment in the future state could 
do the soul no good. All the magazines of eternal 
wrath poured on the soul, never could kindle the 
least spark of love in it, to the divine father of spirits ; 
but would increase, and perpetuate its hatred, to the 
author of its existence, and its miseries. 

We repeat again, that the divine Creator has no 
better method to make sou!> eternally happy in their 
next state of existence, than to permit them to sin and 
to suffer, for a short period, during mortal life, by as- 
sociating them with a body of flesh, whose natural 
propensities are opposed to the divine law, and inter- 
est of the soul itself; and when by this connexion they 
are made fully sensible of their weakness, their im- 
perfection, and need of pardon, and of the impossi- 
bility of being ever holy or happy in this state of con- 
nexion and subjection to vanity ; then to deliver them 
from mortality, and let them know that all their sins, 
which are many, are forgiven them ; thereby it is as- 
similated to love, to the divine Creator. The obliga- 
tion of gratitude, and the sensibility of love to God, 
for this pardon, without desert, is by this means made 
as extensive as the capacities of the soul, and as last- 
ing as its immortal nature. 



ANOTHER STATE. 263 

We anticipate objections enough, to the position 
which we have taken — but we will remark, in an- 
swer ; if the divine Creator could have devised and 
executed any better way for the purification and glory 
of souls, who can justify his conduct for refusing the 
better, and choosing the worse ? ho one. Now the 
Almighty can never do wrong, and therefore, the pre- 
sent method of making souls eternally happy is the 
best. 

The scriptures declare, that God hath concluded 
all under sin, that he might have mercy on all. Now 
we inquire, how God could have concluded all under 
sin, unless he had previously ordained that all should 
sin ? he could not ; or how could he have mercy on 
all, unless all sin — mercy could not exist, without the 
existence of the criminal. Again, without the exer- 
cise of mercy in pardoning the condemned sinner, the 
soul could not love the divine pardoner, of course 
''could not be prepared by love for eternal glory. The 
soul could not, by any other means, be made to love 
God, because he first loved it. Thus, it appears as 
plain, as the first principles of calculation, that God, 
by associating all souls with a fleshly body, and carnal 
mind, which is enmity to God, not subject to his will, 
neither indeed can be, caused them to sin, against a 
spiritual law, whose requisitions are not only opposed 
to the propensities of the carnal mind, but reaches to 
the thoughts of the heart of flesh, that he might have 
mercy on all such offenders, and that the knowledge 
of this mercy might produce in the pardoned soul, 
pure and everlasting love, to the divine Creator, par- 
doner, and Redeemer, who by his blood and death, 
made known this love and pardon, to criminal souls. 

Thus, in conclusion, we see that there is no impro- 
priety in God's pardoning the worst of sinners, either 
in this, or the future state, without suffering or ser- 
vice, and that no good man will murmur at the dis- 



264 IMPROVEMENT IN 

play of so much grace — and that no soul in any stale 
of its existence, can be made truly sorry for its offen- 
ces against any being, until it discovers that this being 
loves it, and that this love can be shown only by a 
perfect willingness to forgive. As soon as the father 
kissed his returning son, his heart was melted, and he 
said, father, I have sinned. 

Secondly, we have seen, that the display of unmer- 
ited, and free pardon of the soul by the divine Being, 
is the way to purify and exalt it, to a state of future 
and eternal glory ; and thirdly, this could not have 
been done unless the soul had been left to sin and to 
suffer, as it now does ; that had God been able to 
devise a better method, he could not, he would not 
have pursued the present one for the restoration of 
all things. 

After reading the above, the reader may say, that 
we charge God as being the author of sin — of this he 
will read in the next book. 

And now, dear reader, if you can have the faith of 
truth, can believe the consolatory doctrine of the cer- 
tain alteration of the soul for the better beyond the 
grave, you must, you will be happy, through every 
period of your life, for you will know, that whatever 
might have been the age, condition, or conduct of 
your dear children, when they left the body, they are 
saved, are happy, and that you shall surely see them 
again in your father's home, in all the charms of an- 
gelic beauty. Is it not comfort to you, when your 
beauteous babe is about to die — when you contem- 
plate the fading of the roseate cheeks and ruby lips — 
the departing of the sublime lustre of the eyes — the 
heaving of the breast with agony and pain, and quick- 
ened palpitation of the heart of innocence, and love — 
the pulsations of which are soon to cease — and to see 
it weep on your breast of compassion, the burning 
tears of death, and implore with all the eloquence of 



ANOTHER STATE. 265 

suffering beauty, and love, the help 3*011 cannot give — 
O, then to believe, that the object of your fondest 
love is soon, by this sad struggle, to put off mortality, 
to bloom in immortal beauty, and that you shall cer- 
tainly, and that soon, see it again, and press it full of 
joys, to your immortal soul never to part again ; 
surely it is a consolation. 

Is it no comfort, when your son or daughter, your 
husband or wife, your brother or sister, or your father 
or mother is about to die, while viewing the last 
struggle of nature's pains, to believe that all the suf- 
fering scene will soon be over, and tears of grief will 
all be wiped away by God's own hand ; when all the 
hidden faculties of the immortal soul shall bloom and 
flourish in a better clime, where neither pain, nor 
death shall ever come to mar immortal joys, or part 
the blessed in heaven ? Thus to believe that all man- 
kind will ultimately be purified, and sublimated to the 
highest degree of intellectual perfection, is cheering to 
the benevolent soul. — To be sure to meet the friends 
of your life — the parents of your body — the sisters 
and brothers of your love — the wife of your bosom, 
and long the partner of your sorrow and joy, — the 
husband of your affection and heart's love — the chil- 
dren of your fondness and earthly comfort — all — all 
arrayed in immortal beauty, and filled with divine 
joys, never to part or suffer more — is to have thejoys 
of immortal life — even so Lord Jesus, amen. 
23 



Eooft jpourtft* 

►3 critical exposition of the present systems of Christian Theology, 
with scripture proof of their falsity and injurious tendency to 
mankind. 

SECTION Z. 

0f the origin of sin — Fabulous account — True account — $in- 
not infinite, but finite. 

The origin of sin, has, by the generality of christian 
professors, been very easily accounted for, but in a 
way which we must disbelieve and dispute, and that 
with a view to the benefit of man. The substance of 
the account alluded to is the following. 

Some time before the creation of man, the Almighty 
thought proper to create a great multitude of spiritual 
beings, called angels ; and that some of those crea- 
tures of God, were much higher in dignity and glory 
than others, but were all perfectly free from the least 
moral disorder ; but, that one of those holy and glo- 
rious angels of light and immortal life, who was dig- 
nified above all the rest, and stood prime minister of 
the Almighty, discharged the functions of his high of- 
fice to the admiration of millions of celestial beings 
and the approbation of God himself, for a length of 
time — but at last fell from his glory, and perfection. 
The cause of his fall, or dereliction from his primeval 
state of being and dignity, is stated nearly in the fol- 
lowing manner : 

When it pleased the Almighty to reveal the bright- 
ness of his glory and the image of God in humani- 
ty, he gave forth the command, as now appears in the 



268 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

ninety-seventh Psalm, and seventh verse — " Worship 
him all ye gods ;" and in Heb. 1:6," And again, 
when he bringeth the first begotten into the world, he 
aaith, and let all the angels of God worship him.' 1 — 
But that when this dignified, holy angel, this prime 
minister of God, whom christians generally have call- 
ed Lucifer, son of the morning, heard the command, 
he was surprised at the idea of worshipping any other 
being but God himself, and looked on this Son of God 
with disdain and contempt, and in a moment grew in- 
dignant — brushed his strong pinions, and waved them 
for the throne of God — challenged supremacy with 
the Almighty himself, and cast his eyes to the sides of 
the north, as a suitable place to establish his empire. 
Legions of spijits immediately became disaffected to- 
wards God, and followed this chief in rebellion, and 
formed a dangerous party in the kingdom of the Al- 
mighty. The Son of God was invested with power, as 
generalissimo of heaven, to command the remaining 
faithful force against the common enemy. In short, after 
many great and bloody battles between armies of con- 
tending angels, Lucifer and his party were driven out 
of heaven, leaving it in peace, though in a great mea- 
sure depopulated — one third of the stars of heaven 
being drawn away by the dragon's tail. 

God having created the earth and placed the first 
man and woman on it, in a most happy situation of 
innocence and moral purity, without the smallest ap- 
petite to sin, or propensity to evil ; the arch apostate, 
enviously looked from his fiery prison, to which place 
he had been consigned by the Almighty, and behold- 
ing man in so happy a situation, and with a help meet, 
and in a capacity of increasing to a mighty multitude, 
whereby the kingdom of glory might not only be filled 
again to its original number, but be enlarged, was de- 
termined to defeat the design of God in this case. Ac- 
cordingly, he came out of his fiery prison, entered into 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 269 

a serpent, or snake — went to the woman, and beguil- 
ed her, caused her to eat of a certain fruit which God 
had forbidden them to eat, or touch, by which means 
he introduced sin into the world.! 

We have not been very particular in this sketch,, 
but it contains the common notion of the introduction 
of sin into our world. 

We shall now put this doctrinal notion under ex- 
amination, and look diligently for the authority or 
propriety of accounting for it in this way. 

And first, of this memorable rebellion in heaven.—- 
It seems that this rebel angel had always been obedi- 
ent to the commands of his Maker until the very hour 
of his fall — that there was not the least spot of pollu- 
tion in him until he felt the motions of pride, which 
lifted him above submission to the Son of God. This 
being the case, we ask, was this angel ignorant of the 
real character of the Son of God, whom he was com- 
manded to worship ? If he was not, but knew him to 
be no other than the Eternal, his Creator, manifested 
in a nature which Jehovah created — if he loved his 
Maker with an undivided affection, as he must have 
done, if he was holy, and which none will dispute who 
believes the story, he would have worshipped him with 
due reverence the moment he made the discovery, and 
heard the command given. But if this son of the 
morning did not honour the real character of him 
whom he was commanded to worship, had he com- 
plied, he would have worshipped he knew not what, 
and nothing can be more absurd, than to suppose that 
the Almighty would command any of his creatures to 
worship ignorantly. We ask further, could purity 
produce impurity, or moral holiness give rise to unho- 
liness ? All will answer, no. Was not the angel ho- 

f Every believer in the sheer absurd account of the origin of 
sin, ought to remember that he learned it of John Milton, and 
not from the Bible . 

23* 



270 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

\y in every faculty of his nature ? Was not the com- 
mand to worship the son holy and just ? All will an- 
swer, yes. Then from such causes, how was sin pro- 
duced ? The reader will easily see that the question 
cannot be answered. And now, dear reader, if you 
will turn and look at the passages of scripture to which 
we have referred in the subject, you will see that 
they afford no authority, for believing that either gods 
or angels ever refused to worship when commanded. 
The passage in Psalms 97 : 7 — " Worship him all ye 
gods, 1 ' and that in Hebrews, 1:6, " Again when he 
bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, 
and let all the angels worship him," no doubt alluded 
to Jesus Christ — but we ask, was he brought into the 
world, before or since the first transgression of man ? 
Since, most assuredly. Then, supposing that mil- 
lions of angels had refused to worship him, when he 
was brought into the world, and sinned thereby, we 
inquire, what effect their refusal could have on roan's 
transgression ? Surely none, for a cause cannot be 
posterior to its effect. Therefore, to suppose that 
those angels, who never sinned till long after man be- 
came a transgressor, were the instigators of what is 
called the fall of man, discovers a want of correct cal- 
culation. 

And further, what authority have we from scripture 
for believing that the command to worship was diso- 
beyed ? We find nothing connected with either pas- 
sage, that intimates there was any refusal among the 
gods or among the angels. Nor is there any need of 
supposing, that, by the term god, in one of the passa- 
ges, and of angels in the other, any other beings are 
intended, than those of men. 

With regard to the command for all the gods to 
worship him, we remark, that scripture states, " They 
were called gods to whom the word of God came — 
and the scriptures cannot be broken.*" And the com- 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 271 

mand, for all the angels to worship him, stands on the 
same ground. By angels, are meant messengers, who 
are employed by God for the instruction of their fel- 
low creatures, in the will of the Almighty : but as all 
those messengers, or ministers, were inferior to the 
" messenger of the covenant," whom the Almighty 
promised to send to Jerusalem, it was suitable to show 
his superiority by such a token in the scriptures, as 
commanding all the angels, or in other words, minis- 
ters of the sanctuary, to worship him. 

There is another passage or two, in the 41th ch. of 
Isaiah, which reads, " How art thou fallen from hea- 
ven, O ! Lucifer, son of the morning ?" which is 
brought in requisition to prove the fall of Satan. But 
if the reader will read all the chapter to the 24th 
verse, he cannot but be convinced, if he has the un- 
derstanding of a school boy, that no other being is al- 
luded to in the above text, than the king of Babylon. 

Again, this angel of light and glory, must have been 
very ignorant of the power and goodness of God, to 
have had a thought, that to rebel against him could be 
of the least possible advantage to him, or that he 
could have maintained a contest with the Almighty ; 
even man, with all his imperfections, possesses more 
correct understanding on the subject, than the great 
archangel must have had, to justify the hypothesis, 
that he did rebel, under these circumstances. If this 
angel did rebel with an expectation of success against 
his Maker, it intimates, that the inhabitants of heaven 
must have been extremely uncultivated in that age 
of eternity. 

If heaven, which is said to be God's throne, be, or 
ever was inhabited by defectible beings, the place it- 
self must be a defectible place ; and why the Almighty 
should take up his special abode in such a place, sur- 
rounded by defectible beings, we cannot imagine. — 
If, however, it should be argued, that he took up his 



272 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

abode among them with a view to make them holy, 
we reply, that it appears he did not do it ; and it would 
show as much ignorance, as Satan is suffered to have 
laboured under while a holy angel, by supposing that 
God ever was, or ever will be, disappointed in his ex- 
pectations or wishes. But we will proceed. After 
Satan was turned out of heaven, (it is said by man) 
he saw no possible way to injure the Almighty, his ad- 
versary, but by contaminating the new creation, which 
he had just made, and placed in a happy situation in 
the garden of Eden. 

Now reader, observe here, how strange and impro- 
bable this account is. Did not God know the evil 
disposition of Satan ? Had he forgot the awful diffi- 
culty just settled ? or could he leave man to the 
subtilty and wrath of the devil, as an innocent and 
helpless lamb to the ferocity of a bear robbed of her 
whelps? God, it seems, had driven Satan out of 
heaven, from his own presence, but left him at loose 
ends to prey on his tender offspring, whom he had 
just left in a situation on the earth. What would ap- 
pear more unnatural and shocking, than for a father to 
chase his enemy out of his door, but to leave him to 
slay his defenceless children in the street? 

After what has been here written, is it possible that 
any one can find, or even pretend to find from scrip- 
ture, the mere shadow of evidence, or reason, for be- 
lieving such a story, of the cause or origin of sin ? 

But, we are told, that man standing or being in a 
state of sinless purity, in the image of a holy God, 
could not have fallen from that state of rectitude, un- 
less there had been some sinful being to tempt him. 
This argument is unjustifiable ; for if it is true, that 
a perfect being cannot sin unless it be tempted, but if 
tempted can sin ; then, according to this mode of rea- 
soning, and these calculations, the Almighty himself 
may sin, if he should be tempted, who is no more per- 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 273 

feet than man originally was (according to orthodoxy,) 
being created in the " image of him who created him, 1 ' 
and as man did fall from rectitude, and become sinful, 
so may the Almighty, admitting that the above hypo- 
sesis is correct. 

From this we see that the argument of the doctrine 
of the fall of man, by the temptation of the devil, or 
the snake, is false, because its results would be impi- 
ous to believe — man therefore, was never holy since 
he had a body and a carnal mind. 

But, admitting that there is any force in the argu- 
ment, that man being holy could not have sinned 
without a tempter, it stands as directly against the fall 
of satan without a temptation, as it does against man's 
transgression without a temptation. Was man more 
pure before he sinned than was the holy angel in 
heaven ? If not, how could that angel sin without a 
temptation, easier than man, who was made in a lower 
grade of being ? 

But supposing we should admit that God command- 
ed an angel to worship his son Jesus, and that the an- 
gel refused, and we call that refusal the first sin ever 
committed, it would not determine its origin, or cause. 
A cause must exist before an effect, or production — 
So after all our travelling in argument to heaven after 
a sinning angel, and after pursuing him to hell, and 
from hell to earth, we have not yet found an answer 
to the question. We have only shown, that the way 
in which this question has been generally stated and 
believed, is without foundation. 

Having exposed, and we think refuted the notion 
of the generality of christian professors, respecting the 
origin of sin in the moral system, we shall make only 
a few remarks on the subject, but do most earnestly 
solicit the reader who is in the search of truth, to 
read Ballou's Treatise on the Atonement, and on the 
Parables in the New Testament, from which work on 
the Atonement we have collected for this subject. 



274 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

We are informed by the Bible, that God created 
man in his own image, and we are informed by the 
scripture also, that, Christ " is the brightness of the 
Father's glory, and the express image of his person ;'' 
and that he is the " beginning of the creation of God.'" 
But we are further informed by the sacred text, that 
after this creation of man, in the image of God, he 
" formed (not created) man of the dust of the ground.' ' 
The immortal part is thus made a partaker of flesh 
and blood, and is, as the scriptures declare, made sub- 
ject to vanity, not willingly, (not by its own consent) 
but by reason (or the will) of him who subjected the 
same in hope. 

Man has now, not an immortal, but a mortal con- 
stitution, possessing natural carnal appetites and pas- 
sions ; therefore the immediate cause of sin is found 
in the natural constitution of man, which Paul calls 
the "body of sin and death." 

From these remarks, the reader may be led to 
think, that we would intimate that God himself, is, or 
was the cause of sin in man, because he put him into 
a mortal body, and under the influence of natural ap- 
petites and passions, that lead him to crime and mise- 
ry, as naturally as the current flows from the foun- 
tain. 

Well, if it should be admitted, that sin will finally 
terminate for good in the moral system, it will be then 
necessary to admit, that God was its first cause, or 
else we cannot admit that he is the author of all good. 
But if it should be argued, that sin will not terminate 
in good, but is and always will be real damage to the 
kingdom of the Almighty, we must admit, on this hy- 
pothesis, that he is not Almighty, nor good — for if 
good and Almighty he would not have allowed sin to 
enter his kingdom to injure it. We therefore, must 
admit that God, by putting mankind into mortal 
bodies, subjects them to vanity, and that all their 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 275 

crimes and sufferings, will by him be made to termi- 
nate in good — the good of man, and the pleasure 
and glory of God himself. 

In no other view of the subject, can we justify the 
ways of God to man. Those who object to the ex- 
istence of a God, say — If he is all-wise, he must have 
foreseen the evil and misery which were coming into 
the world — If he is all powerful, he could have pre- 
vented them from taking place ; and if he is all good, 
he would have hindered them from existing at all, or 
from continuing, especially if true, as stated by some, 
the existence of moral evil is the cause of the eternal 
misery of the greatest part of God's intelligences. — 
To answer these objections against the existence of a 
God of all wisdom, of all goodness, and of all power, 
we must acknowledge, and say, that he did foresee the 
evil and misery which would exist in the world, with 
all their effects and consequences, and that he could 
have prevented them from taking place : and that al- 
though the existence of evil is not the cause of eter- 
nal misery ; but that the existence of moral evil and 
human misery, will terminate for the good of the uni- 
verse, and therefore the existence and continuance, 
is in accordance with the will, wisdom, power and 
goodness of the Almighty, and the eternal happiness 
of all immortal intelligences. 

By whatever means sin may have been introduced 
among the human family, nearly all Theologians have 
agreed in believing it to be infinite in its nature and 
con'equences, we therefore will now, put this part of 
an erroneous doctrine under examination. 

The supposition that sin is infinite, is endeavoured 
to be supported, in consequence of being committed 
against an infinite law, which is produced by an infinite 
Legislator. But here we must remark, that the in- 
tention of a legislature must be thwarted in order that 
the law should take cognizance of sin. Now if God 



276 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

be the legislator, his intentions in legislation, are 
thwarted also. Here the reader cannot help seeing, 
that if sin be infinite because it is committed against 
an infinite law, whose author is God, the design of De- 
ity must be abortive, to suppose which, brings a cloud 
of darkness over the mind as intense as the supposi- 
tion is erroneous. 

It cannot, with any propriety be supposed, that any 
rational being can have an intention contrary to the 
knowledge which he possesses. Was a resolve brought 
into a legislature to be passed into a law, it would be 
very unlikely to succeed, if the legislature knew per- 
fectly well, that the intention of the law would utterly 
fail. 

It is possible, and very frequently the case, that im- 
perfect beings desire contrary to their knowledge ; 
but this, in every instance is proof, and often the 
cause of their misery. 

Now to reason justly, we must conclude, that if God 
possesses infinite wisdom, he could never have intend- 
ed any thing to take place, or be, that will not take 
place, or be, nor that which is, or will be at the time 
when it is, and it must be considered erroneous to 
suppose, that the Allwise ever desired any thing to 
take place, which by his wisdom, he knew would not 
take place, as such a supposition must in effect pre- 
suppose a degree of misery to exist in the eternal mind, 
equal to the strength of his fruitless desire. Again, if 
we admit a disappointment to the Supreme being, in 
the smallest matter of consideration, it follows, that 
we have no satisfactory evidence, whereby to prove, 
that any thing at present, in the whole universe, is as 
he intended it should be. All the harmonies of nature, 
which to the eye of wondering man, are so convincing 
of that power, wisdom, and goodness, which he adores, 
may have continued their laws in active force much 
longer than God intended — may have brought into 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED, 277 

existence, millions of beings, more than was contem- 
plated, in creation, and by this time become a perfect 
nuisance to the general plan of the Almighty ; nor are 
we certain, if we admit that God ever was, or ever 
will be disappointed in any thing, or matter, but that 
he will be disappointed in all his calculations ; of 
course, of the eternal destiny of all his intelligent crea- 
tures, and even of his own. If this inference should 
be granted, we have not the least foundation, for any 
faith, in any of the promises which God has made in 
the Scriptures respecting the fate of the righteous, or 
the wicked. Such a system of belief would destroy in 
the mind all the influence of the Scriptures. The ad- 
mission of such an error, would sink the human mind 
to the lowest degree of moral depravity, where dark- 
ness reigns with all its horrors, without one ray of the 
cheering lights of divine truth and love, that in the Fa- 
ther of light there is no variableness nor shadow of 
turning. No intelligent being would or could worship, 
and depend on a being, who was liable to change, and 
disappointment. 

Let us now make the inquiry, if the intentions of 
the Supreme are violated by the sin of finite beings ? 
If not, then sin is not an infinite evil, and the conse- 
quences are therefore limited. Bu* if we admit that 
the plans of God are thwarted, bis will cannot be infi- 
nite, for infinity admits noting beyond it. If the 
transgression be not infinite, neither can its consequen- 
ces be unlimited and illimitable. 

But enough has piobably been said, to show that sin 
cannot be infinite, and cannot therefore require infi- 
nite and unlimited punishment. But we will suppose 
sin and its consequences infinite in their nature. — 
Then they are thus of necessity, and whatever neces- 
sarily exists, must be right. No proposition is better 
supported than this. Well, what then is the result ? 
Why, if the extension of its consequences be right, the 
24 



278 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

plan of God must be thwarted in putting an end to sin, 
and sin and suffering must be continued endlessly, or 
the plan of God must be frustrated, and injustice tri- 
umph over God — ergo' — injustice is infinite. If there- 
fore, we agree to call sin an infinite evil, and maintain 
the infinity of its consequences, either none are saved 
from it, or those which are saved from it, are unjust- 
ly saved. To speak of men who never were sinners 
as being saved, is utterly absurd, and it can be no less 
so to say that any are saved from sin, or its consequen- 
ces, on the principles of injustice. This would involve 
the principle of injustice as an infinite principle, and 
confound all distinction in the use of terms. 

A very child can see, that if justice and injustice be 
equally attributes of the Almighty, then both are mer- 
ged in one essence, and that the terms are interchang-. 
able ; in which case we use these various terms synon- 
ymously, and endeavour to make a distinction without 
a difference. We call God a good being, and fancy 
that his justice entitles him to that appellation ; but 
why not, on the supposition we have just mentioned, 
call him an evil being, if we understand evil by the 
term injustice .? Yet if the terms justice and injustice, 
good and evri\ convey the same meaning, why do we 
speak of sin as an evil, or of righteousness as its oppo- 
site ? Let those who hold to such absurdities answer 
the question. 

But that which can be limited in its consequences, 
has no claim to infinity. Bm sin is limited by justice, 
or Jehovah is not a just God a^d a Saviour. If he 
is just in putting an end to sin, then sin must come to 
an end, or it will transcend the attribute of justice, 
which is either infinite, or is not an attribute of Jeho- 
vah. But if it be still contended that sin is an infinite 
evil, then all sins are infinite, or none ; and if one sin 
be infinite, all are of one grade, or rather, but one sin 
exists, and that is all the infinity which exists in crea- 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 279 

tion. On this principle, I see not why sin is not our 
chief good, and the proper object of worship. 

Let us now suppose that the good which may be ef- 
fected by any rational created being, is infinite. The 
same person may then be infinitely good, and infinitely 
evil. A paradox truly, but not more absurd, than to 
call sin an infinite evil. If man's faculties are infinite, 
his acts are also infinite, and vice versa. If therefore 
one side of the question is good the other is perfect, and 
man is but a bundle of absurdities — a being who is the 
source of never ceasing contest, between two contra- 
dictory infinities. Or, let one balance the other, and 
neutralize both. 

To say that whatever evil God permits is ultimately 
to be overruled for good, is both rational, and scriptu- 
ral. Let us grant then, that sin will finally terminate 
in good. In this sense sin is not an ultimate evil. But 
we term it evil in a limited sense, and very correctly. 
The act of Joseph's brethren was in itself an evil, but 
as overruled by God, it produced good. Here is dis- 
tinction between good and. evil, marked by the inUnr 
tion of the actors. To Jacob,, this was a present evil, 
and he considered all these things as against him ; but 
had his faculties been infinite, he must have seen the 
result, and these things would have appeared for him, 
and not against him. But the intention of the brethren 
was evil, and they justly suffered all the horrors of re- 
morse, and all the fears of death. But had their facul- 
ties been infinite, and had they seen their crime in all 
its deformity, it could not have been committed. The 
falsehood which they told old Jacob was occasioned 
by their fears, but their ignorance was greater than 
their knowledge of either the present or future conse- 
quences of their conduct. Yet their ignorance did not 
-prevent the good which God purposed to bring out of 
the event. For the evil they suffered, but when the 
evil was overruled for their own good — they rejoiced* 



280 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 



SECTION XI 

Second plan of Atonement, examined and refuted. Remarks on its 
injurious effects. 

Another system of atonement shall now be examin- 
ed. The object of this plan is to manifest the glory of 
God, in giving honour to his holy law. It supposes 
that God is to effect this by certain displays of his sov- 
ereign and irresistible grace, and that self is his ruling 
motive. The reason given is, that his glory is para- 
mount to every other object, and is not therefore ne- 
cessarily connected with the best good of all, or any of 
his creatures. 

This system argues, cither that God has lost glory, 
or that his glory may be enhanced. If his glory suf- 
fers diminution, it may finally be annihilated, and in 
proportion as it decreases, he must suffer loss, and be- 
come in so far, less than infinite. If his glory be per- 
ishable, and subject to decay, it cannot be indestructi- 
ble, and in so far as his glory is connected with his be- 
ing, he is in a state of mental decay. And this is the 
very pith of the argument, as is seen by his caution in 
watching it ; for none but a weak being can be afraid 
of losing by a stronger, and hence his constant vigi- 
lance for its preservation. 

Heathen mythology represents Jupiter seated on the 
top of Olympus, absorbed in the contemplation of his 
own perfections, unmoved by the joys or sorrows — the 
happiness or misery of puny mortals. And where is 
the difference in fact, between these representations ? 
Self, dear isolated self, is the object of both. Uncon- 
nected with all sublunary affairs, Deity is represented 
as caring for nothing relating to the affairs of his crea- 
tures, and as utterly unconnected with his offspring by 
even the slightest moral relation. Thus in effect, he 
is represented as creating without aim or object, un- 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 281 

connected with an indescribable something, called 
glory ; which glory he is every moment liable to lose, 
and of which he is so jealous, that he must make the 
most savage exhibitions of his power to maintain it. 
What motives he offers for love and veneration, in this 
character, is left to the wisdom of others to discover. 
The character thus given him, implies want and anxi- 
ety, always allied to imperfection. 

That this representation of his character never can 
induce a filial affection, is evident from the fact that it 
presents no feature of loveliness, by which rational 
beings can be attracted. We can love nothing which 
does not present some features of goodness. But 
goodness is recognized only by acts which demon- 
strate its existence. Goodness is that attribute which 
promotes the happiness of those who are within the 
scope of its power. It can never be confined to self; 
and we may with as much propriety say a rock or a 
tree is good, as to represent the creator of the universe 
as good or beneficent, unless the disposition to dif- 
fuse happiness be manifested in appropriate acts of 
kindness. 

The scriptures, however, give him a very different 
character. He is there represented as our common 
Parent — the Father of the spirits of all flesh. This 
brings us into a moral relationship, and evidences a 
paternal providence, and constant watchfulness ovef 
us. He is said to open his bounties for the sustenance 
and satisfaction of all his creatures, and our senses 
testify to the fact that he sends rain and sunshine on 
the just and the unjust, producing fruitful seasons, and 
filling our hearts with joy and gladness. How near 
these descriptions agree with that torpid apathy im- 
puted to him by the system under examination, every 
one can judge, whose moral sense has not been be- 
numbed by the stoical theory of which we are now 
speaking. 

24* 



282 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

Judging then by what we learn in the book of na- 
ture, and its confirmation in the volume of inspiration, 
the lineaments in the features of his cnaracter, as thus 
unfolded, claim our warmest affections. We are thus 
taught to "love him because he first loved us.' ' A 
motive is thus afforded for the exercise of gratitude, 
and gratitude is rational devotion. But in which of 
the icy features with which the doctrines of men have 
invested him, shall we look for one ray of light to 
warm the hearts of his creatures ? Where shall we 
look for one expression proving that he careth for us? 
It does not appear — it exists not. All is cold as the 
icebergs of the arctic pole, and dark as the vaults 
of death. No motives are exhibited for the exer- 
cise of the affections, and without motive men never 
act. 

But we have not yet done with the premises, nor 
exposed its most prominent absurdities. The system 
supposes that the highest exhibition of honour to the 
law of God, was manifested in the sufferings of Christ. 
Men are supposed to have incurred the penalty of 
endless misery, a penalty which can never be inflicted, 
and therefore a palpable contradiction in terms. To 
say that God can inflict, or man suffer, endless punish- 
ment, is to limit the suffering, by bringing it to a close. 
A proposition which is a most palpable absurdity, 
growing out of others which made it requisite as one 
falsehood makes many more necessary, to hide the ori- 
ginal among a number of its fellows. True, indeed, 
the system does not aver that Jesus suffered exactly 
the penalty ; for a few hours' suffering will hardly be 
termed endless, especially as no one believes he is 
now suffering. But the theory in question, supposes 
the being who suffered infinite, in some sense, and 
therefore term it an infinite atonement. Being met, 
however, by common sense, the sticklers for this sys- 
tem aver, that though Deity could not properly be 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 28S 

said to suffer, yet the complex nature, the divine and 
the human, added such dignity to the sufferings, that 
the humanity which suffered, being raised to a state of 
immortality, by the infinite portion of Jesus, the suffer- 
ing, though finite, has an infinite effect, and exhibits the 
glory of God, in the punishment of the human, and 
therefore finite nature of the sufferer. But after all 
these sufferings and exhibitions, and all the representa- 
tions of cruelty inflicted on one of these two natures 
belonging to one person, by the other nature which 
took it into company, nothing seems to be accomplish- 
ed for man's benefit. The sinning children of God, 
are still left to welter in torments while God exists, 
saving only, that this very singular act has given God 
power to save as many as shall be called by his irre- 
sistible grace, from the just demerits of their crimes. 
How much is thus gained by or for men, admitting all 
this display was solely for the selfish glory of God, let 
those judge, who have examined the system with a 
common share of observation. 

We have now looked at this plan of atonement, 
and seen that it has no foundation in the scriptures — 
that it is altogether inadequate to its pretended effect 
— and that it tends to harden the heart, by an exhibi- 
tion of folly and cruelty, worthy of no authority save 
heathen fable, and the mystery of fanatics. 



SUCTION III 

Third plan of atonement examined, and found wanting. Dis- 
honourable to God, and injurious to man. 

This plan, as regards the law, the penalty, a^d per- 
son making the atonement, agrees with the form -r, but 
differs in its object. Original sin, so < ailed, is s ip^os- 
ed to be washed away, so that not one of Adam's race, 



284 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

will on that account, be finally and interminably mis- 
erable. It also supposes, that man, by this means, 
possesses a moral power to oppose the natural desires 
of his nature, and conform to the requirement of holi- 
ness. That Christ died also for our actual sins, of 
which we may receive a benefit by repentance and 
faith, and that now a possibility exists of the salvation 
of all men, on the performance of certain conditions, 
not very specifically defined, among which is the re- 
ception of Christ as he is offered to us. 

This plan also includes the idea, that men can, and 
that many do, reject the use of the spirit af lorded 
them by these means, in consequence of which they 
are totally lost. And it further maintains, that no cer- 
tainty of salvation is given to any one, nor does it lay 
God under any obligation to save a single soul, in any 
way. So very consistent a foundation, we shall pro- 
bably find well fitted for supporting the superstructure 
which has been built upon it. 

That we may commence the work of examination 
understandingly, it may be well to state distinctly cer- 
tain ideas which seem essential to all these several sys- 
tems. We have noticed them in part, and shall now 
speak of them more fully. The God, or Godhead, is 
supposed to consist of three persons, all and each real- 
ly God, or very God, of very God, or three distinct 
persons, in one essence ; but nevertheless, so triangu- 
larly divided and subdivided, that either one, or all 
three, is or are, one only God, in three persons, forever. 
But yet, that a distinction subsists sufficient to make a 
legal contract. In this contract, the Son being second 
in the trinity, agreed, under certain stipulations, to 
honour the law of his Father, by enduring enough of 
his wrath to wash out the original taint of the first 
transgression, on certain conditions to be performed 
by man, not yet fully made public. But setting aside 
all this confusion, let us inquire — If the Father be God, 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 285 

the Son be God, the Holy Ghost be God, and each in- 
finite, and truly Almighty, we have three infinite 
Gods, two in the relationship of Father and Son, and 
the third " proceeding from the Father and the Son,''' 
yet the Son begotten by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
the third person in this incomprehensible, triad of in- 
finities. But leaving all this sublimated nonsense, 
let us inquire into the remainder of this wonderful con- 
trivance. The Son, to fulfil his part of the contract, 
has to take human nature into company, thus compos- 
ing a complex person, being " God and man in two 
distinct natures, and one person for ever." Very well. 
Now if each of the trinity be God, and God and man 
compose but one person, then man, or human nature, 
is a component portion of a triune, or three-one Je- 
hovah. If then the finite part of Christ only suffered, 
the Son did not fulfil the contract, for he agreed to suf- 
fer. If Ac suffered, then infinity can suffer, and be- 
come imperfect. Some endeavour to maintain this, 
and hence we read in Watts, " the great Jehovah 
dies ;" and another requests us to behold a " dying 
God," while a third speaks of Christ as receiving "a 
new and immortal life !" 

If the reader carefully examines all the stupid absur- 
dities in the commencement of this stupendous plan of 
atonement, he will not be disappointed in believing 
that the result of the system will be equally ridiculous. 
He must see, that even admitting men were destined to 
suffer endlessly for the sin of Adam, and the death of 
Christ has merely washed away this stain, little, if any 
thing is gained, even in appearance. Man is still lia- 
ble to suffer all the terrible consequences of transgres- 
sion — his nature is not changed — he is still subject to 
vanity, and his boasted state of a second probation is 
no better than the first, which resulted so wofully. 
The death of Christ has not made salvation certain to 
any one. A possibility is all which is promised in the 



286 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

whole affair, notwithstanding all this great display, in 
which God is represented as suffering to appease his 
own wrath. 

But, after all, where is the wisdom in all this contri- 
vance, which Deity must know would fail, if it does 
fail ? Where is the safeguard against the abuse of the 
power to sin, which has once been abused ? Where 
is the wisdom of that economy which puts into the 
hands of man a weapon which has been used, and may 
again be used for his own destruction? Mas God no 
will about this affair? or docs he care so little about 
his offspring, that any possible event is equal to his 
feelings, equally subservient to his declarative glory ? 
Would a wise earthly parent act thus carelessly in re- 
gard to the children of his body? Certainly not. 

No principle is more certain, than that the love of 
Ihe creature is drawn to the Creator by Vr.c ;. 
tion of his paternal regard to us. But in what part of 
this system is he represented to us as either wise or be- 
nevolent ? Is wisdom implied, in bestowing on man a 
continuation of power w Inch has already been abused ' 
Did he, or did he not, foresee the consequences of this 
act? If the plan exhibits neither wisdom nor good- 
ness, where is our reason for reverence or regard .' 
No possible evidence is given, on this system, that he 
is worthy our veneration, or our gratitude, and hence 
its immoral tendency is seen in bold relief. 

But granting for a moment, that God hoped, or ex- 
pected! a very different result, then he is disappointed, 
and who knows he will not be always disappointed ? 
]{ he improves by experience, then is he imperfect, 
and not allwise. If his understanding is but finite, 
v. here shall we trust better than in our own wisdom ? 

The Scriptures, however, represent him as infinite 
in power, knowledge, and goodness ; as loving his 
creatures, and devising their happiness ; as willing 
the salvation of all, with the ability to accomplish it; 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 237 

as having a determinate counsel which shall stand ; as 
having made known the good pleasure of his will, 
which shall be fulfilled. This represents him as the 
Father, guardian, and benefactor of the human race, 
and our never ceasing friend. Whether these charac- 
teristics deserve our obedience, our veneration, our 
gratitude — judge ye. 

Having now, as we believe, fairly exhibited and re- 
futed the more common notions entertained of the 
atonement, we purpose to present the reader a Scrip- 
tural and rational view of the subject, extracted from 
a Treatise on Atonement, by Rev. Hosea Ballou,now 
of Boston. 

SECTION IV. 

The personage of the Mediator who makes the Atonement, and 
his ability for performing the work. 

We have already stated some of the absurdities con- 
tained in the opinions of most christians, respecting 
the Mediator : We shall now be a little more particular 
on the subject. 

We shall contend, that the Mediator is a created, de- 
pendant being. That he is a created being, is proved, 
from Rev. 3:14, where he is said to be " the begin- 
ning of the creation of God.'' His dependency is 
proved, by his frequent prayers to the Father. That 
he acknowledged a superior, when on earth, is evi- 
dent, from many passages which might be quoted. — 
See St. John 5 : 19. Christ here says, " The Son can 
do nothing of himself, but what he ^eeth the Father 
do. 1 ' He acknowledged a superior in knowledge, see 
Matthew 24 : 36. " But of that day and hour know- 
eth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Fa- 
ther only." This passage implies, that he did not 



288 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

know of that day himself. St. Mark is still more ex- 
plicit, see 13 : 32. " But of that day and that hour 
knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in 
heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." And fur- 
ther, that he acknowledged a superior, even in his 
risen glory, may be proved from his own words to his 
servant John, on the Isle of Patmos, see Rev. 3:12. 
" Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the 
temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and 
I will write upon him the name of my God, and the 
name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, 
which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and 
I will write upon him my new name." Four times, 
in the above passage, he acknowledges a being whom 
he worships. Again, see Psalm 45 : 7. " Thou lovest 
righteousness and hatest wickedness, because God, 
thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness 
above thy fellows.' 1 The reader will observe, we 
have ventured to put the word because, in room of 
the word therefore, in this quotation ; but we have 
not done it, without the authority of a former transla- 
tion. The difference is so essential, we cannot dis- 
pense with it. Observe, the writer of the Psalm ad- 
dresses one God, and speaks, in his address, of anoth- 
er, see 6 : " Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.'' 
This God is dependent on another, expressed in the 
7th : Because, God, thy God hath anointed thee, &c. 
That the names, God, Lord, and everlasting Father, 
are applied to Christ, we shall not dispute ; neither 
shall we dispute the propriety of it ; but we do not 
admit, that they mean the self-exMent Jehovah, when 
applied to the Mediator. In (he quotation from the 
Psalm, Christ is said to be anointed above his fellows. 
Fellows are equals. Who are Christ's equals ? Per- 
haps the reader may say, they are the Father and the. 
Holy Spirit ; but we can hardly believe, that Christ wa ■ 
anointed with the oil of gladness above his Father, 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 289 

neither do we believe any one will contend for it. — ■ 
We are sensible, that God speaks, by the prophet, of 
smiting the man who is his fellow ; but this fellowship 
must be different from the one just spoken of, and 
stands only in an official sense. The reader will then 
ask, if we would consider the Mediator no more than 
equal with men ? We answer, yes, were it not, that 
our Father and his Father, our God and his God, hath 
anointed him above his fellows. See Philippians 2 : 
9. " Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and 
given him a name which is above every name.'" For 
this exaltation and name, he was dependent on his 
Father, and received them from him. This name, 
which is above every name, is the name of God, 
named on Jesus. It will be said, Christ taught the 
people, that he and his Father were one. I grant he 
did, and if that prove him to be essentially God, the 
argument must run farther than the objector would 
wish to have it. See St. John 17 : 11. Christ prays 
that his disciples may be one, even as he and the Fa- 
ther are one. The oneness of the Father and Son, is 
their union and agreement in the great work which he 
has undertaken ; and he prayed that his disciples 
might be as well agreed in the gospel of salvation, as 
he and his Father were, see 18. " As thou hast sent 
me into the world, so have I also sent them into the 
world.' ' The Father of all mercies sent his Son Je- 
sus into the world, for a certain purpose ; and there 
was a perfect agreement between them, in all things. 
He says, he came not to do his own will, but the will 
of him who sent him. And again, My meat and drink, 
is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his 
work. 

The President of the United States sends a minister 
to negotiate a peace at a foreign court ; this min- 
ister must conduct according to the authority which 
he derives from him, by whom he is sent ; and as far 

25, 



290 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

as he does, he is, in his official character, the power 
that sent him. It is evident, Christ received the pow- 
er which he exercises in the work which he hath 
undertaken, and that his kingdom was given to him, 
which goes to prove, he did not eternally possess 
them ; see Dan. 7:14, "And there was given him 
dominion and glory, and a kingdom.'? According to 
the prophecy here quoted, the dominion, glory and 
kingdom of Christ, were given him. The people 
whom he is to rule are given him, see Psalm 2 : 8. 
*' Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for thy possession." St. Matthew 28 : 18. Jesus 
saith, " AH power is given unto me in heaven and 
earth." 11: 27. " All things are delivered unto me 
of my Father." These and many more passages are 
found in sacred writ, in support of the dependence of 
the Mediator on the Supreme Eternal, and that he 
derives his power and glory from him. But if Christ 
be essentially God, all those scriptures seem without 
just signification. 

Christ is said to he the " image of the invisible 
God, the first born of every creature. 1 ' His be- 
ing the first born of every creature, agrees with his 
being the beginning of the creation of God. It is 
plain to us, from scripture, that the Mediator is the 
first human soul which was created, as Adam was the 
first man that was formed ; and that he is, in spirit, 
the Father of every human creature, as much as Ad- 
am is in the flesh. Therefore, Christ saith, as it is 
written, " Behold 1 and the children that thou hast 
given me." 

It is written, that man was created in the image of 
God ; and, by the light of the gospel, St. Paul ven- 
tured to assert, that Christ was this image. The 
reader will do well to observe, that the image of a 
person, and the person, are not. essentially one, but 



SYSTEMS EXAMINED. 29t 

some knowledge of a person may be obtained by his 
true image. Christ being the image of God, it is by 
him we learn the nature of the Father. Christ saith, 
" No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to 
whom the Son revealeth him.'" Again, " No man 
cometh unto the Father, but by me." St. Paul is 
particular, on this subject, in his 1st Epistle to Timo- 
thy, see 2:5." For there is one God, and one Me- 
diator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 
It seems, by this testimony, that St. Paul was a stran- 
ger to the notion of Christ's being essentially God, as 
it would be improper to call him a man, were that the 
case. If it be argued, that Christ is God and man 
both, we ask, was it the whole divine nature which 
constituted the divinity of Christ ? If this question 
be answered in the affirmative, we desire to know 
where that divinity is which constitutes the other two 
persons in the Godhead. If the question be answer- 
ed in the negative, and it be argued, that the divinity 
which Christ possessed was an emanation from Jeho- 
vah, it is coming directly to what we contend for, viz. 
that he is a created being. 

As we have seen, from the prophecy of Daniel, that 
Christ received his kingdom ; so we are taught, by St. 
Paul, that he will deliver up his kingdom to the Fa- 
ther, when he has accomplished the grand object of 
his reign, see 1 Cor. 15 : 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. " Then 
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the 
kingdom to God, even the Father : when he shall 
have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. 
For he must reign, until he hath put all enemies un- 
der his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed 
is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. 
But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is 
manifest that he is excepted which did put all things 
under him. And when all things shall be subdued 
unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject 



292 DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS 

unto him that put ail things under him, that God may 
be all in all." 

We next inquire, has the Mediator power, or ability,, 
to perform the great work of atonement, which is the 
reconciliation of the world to God ? Those scrip- 
tares, with their connexions, which we have quoted to 
prove the Mediator's dependency, abundantly prove 
the sufficiency of his power to accomplish the work in 
which he is engaged. If all power in heaven and 
earth be committed to Christ, no doubt can be enter- 
tained of its sufficiency. If the whole system of law 
in moral nature be subservient to the designs of the 
Redeemer, and if he hold in his hands the power of 
moral government, it certainly must be at his option, 
whether men shall be reconciled to God, or not.'" 

Will all men then be reconciled to God? Let the 
scriptures answer. 

u Having made known unto us the mystery of his 
will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath 
purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the 
fulness of times, he might gather together in one all 
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which 
are on earth ; even in him : And that he might recon- 
cile both unto God in one body by the cross, having 
slain the enmity thereby ; And came and preached 
peace to you which were afar off, and to them that 
were nigh." 



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